Equipment And Protocols - Dedicated Micros dv-ip Setup Manual

Equipment and Protocols

A network consists of hardware, cabling and protocols, the following describes the most common
devices and protocols that you will be introduced to when installing a DV-IP Solution.
A network infrastructure generally consists of a high speed 'bus' backbone that connects to hardware to
introduce a 'star' topology at the edge of the network.
A bus network has the advantage of speed, i.e. no hardware to slow down the data being transmitted,
but the disadvantage is the whole network is a point of failure. If a cable is cut the whole network will no
longer function, and it is also very difficult to find the area on the cable that has the problem.
A star network introduces hardware, therefore reducing the point of failure to a single device. Identifying
this failure is extremely easy and quick as there are software applications that run on these devices
allowing for feedback on packet loss, usage (capacity), failure, etc. The disadvantage is the introduction
of hardware adds time to the transmission of the information; however the advantages are far more
significant.
A combination (described above) of bus and star gives speed at the centre of the network where it is
required (route of most of the network data) while adding security and single points of failure with the
introduction of hardware.
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