Star

In a star network, each terminal is directly connected to a central hub (see fig 1). Each connection is independent of all other connections. It is easy to cable because you do not have to worry about where the computers on the network are in relation to each other.

A twisted-pair cable is common for configuration, but coaxial or fiber optic cable may also be used.

Fig 1

Advantages

	Easy to install
	If one node fails, other nodes will not be affected
	Data transfer between the central server and the nodes is relatively low, therefore a low cost cable like twisted pair cable can be used to connect the nodes to the server

Disadvantages

If the hub fails then all nodes attached will go down