PROS & CONS

TOPOLOGY		PROS	CONS
Bus		Use of cable is economical.	Network can slow down in heavy traffic.
		Media is inexpensive  & easy to work with.	Entire network  shuts down if there is a break in the main cable.
		System is simple & reliable.	Problem are difficult  to  isolate.
		Bus is easy to extends.	Terminators are required at both ends of the backbone cable.
Star		Failure of one computer does  not  affect the rest of the network.	If the centralized point fails, the network  fails.
		Modifying  system and adding  new computers is easy.	Costs are usually higher than with bus or ring networks.
		Centralized  monitoring  & management are possible.
Ring	System provides equal access for all computers.		Failure of one computer can impact the rest of the network.
	Performance is even despite many user.		Problem are hard to isolate.
			Unmanageable in a large network.
Mesh	System provides increased redundancy & reliability as well as ease of troubleshooting.		System is expensive to install because it uses a lot of cabling.
Tree	Point-to-point wiring for individual segments.		Overall length of each segments is limited by the type  of cabling used.
	Supported by several hardware & software venders.		If the backbone line breaks, the entire segments goes down.
			More difficult to configure & wire than other topologies.