What Is A Hybrid Topology?

Date First Published: 25th May 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Setups

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 7/10

CONTENTS

Types Of Hybrid Network Topologies
Advantages and Disadvantages Of A Hybrid Topology

Learn more about what a hybrid topology is in this article.

A hybrid topology is the most complex type of network topology. It is a combination of two or more different topologies. For example, a star-ring hybrid topology is a combination of the star and ring topology, where two or more star topologies are connected to each other through a ring topology. It also has the advantages and disadvantages of both topologies. Hybrid topologies are often used in large networks to organise different networks.

An example of the use of a hybrid topology is: A school has a large number of different departments and they want to organise each department by the network topology. For example, if one department uses a star topology and another uses a ring topology, combining these two topologies together will result in a hybrid topology.

Types Of Hybrid Network Topologies

Different types of hybrid topologies exist to fulfil the needs of a business, which are listed below.

Star-ring hybrid topology - This network topology combines the features of a star topology and ring topology. Multiple star topologies are connected to each other through a ring topology.
Data packets from a star topology that reach a node in the ring topology can be sent in two ways. Some ring topologies allow data packets to be moved in both directions (clockwise and anticlockwise). This is known as a bidirectional ring network. Most ring topologies only allow data packets to travel in one direction, known as a unidirectional ring network.
Star-bus hybrid topology - This network combines the features of a star topology and a bus topology. Multiple star topologies are connected to each other through a bus topology that contains a central cable.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of A Hybrid Topology

The advantages of a point-to-point topology are:

It combines the benefits of different network topologies.
It is scalable as the size of the topology can be easily increased.
It is easy to troubleshoot. For example, if an issue occurred in the network, it will be easy to identify where the issue is occurring.

The disadvantages of a point-to-point topology are:

It is expensive to implement a hybrid topology, due to the high number of cables required to connect all the devices.
It has a complex design, making it more difficult to maintain.
Hardware changes are required to connect a topology with another topology.