User's Manual

Hardware Installation Guide 2-1
2
. . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
: ,5(/(66 1 (7:25. ' (6,*1
The term network topology refers to the logical layout of a network.
It defines how the network elements will communicate with each
other, how the information will be transmitted, and how the
information will be routed through the network.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3$&.(7%$6('1(7:25.6
Packet-based networks are most suitable for data that come in
bursts, such as networks that involve large-scale data
transmissions for multiple users at the same time. There is a
guaranteed minimum throughput for a packet-based network,
but the actual throughput realized by a packet-based network
node will depend on
• the number of users in the network, and
• how much traffic is being generated by each node at any given
time.
The advantage of a packet-based network is that multiple
transmissions can travel along the network at the same time,
using whatever path is appropriate to the routing from the source
to the destination.
The most significant characteristic of packet-based networks is
the wireless interface access protocols they use, such as
CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance),
which can result in more efficient use of the aggregate bandwidth
by dynamically allocating throughput to nodes based on
demand.
P-Com DataMetro II supports Point-to-Point, Peer-to-Peer, and
Centralized (Star) packet-based network topologies. Each
topology has its own optimized wireless protocol.