Tree topology is a combination of bus topology and star topology. In bus topology, different nodes are connected to a single cable while in a star topology, all nodes are connected to a central hub. Tree topology is made by connecting various star topologies via central bus backbone cable. It is used for expansion of the network.
In this type of network, point to point wiring is made for individual segments and it can support several software and hardware vendors. There is a disadvantage of tree topology i.e. if central backbone fails then the whole network stops working.
In tree topology, two nodes can be connected to a single parent node. The two nodes are called children of the parent node. The topology is named tree because its shape looks like a tree with different branches of nodes. The parent and child relationship in tree topology helps to search and sort a large amount of data in the network. The child nodes are also called leaves of the network.
It is easy to find fault in the network and network administrator can fix the bug instantly. If any parent node gets a problem then child node stops accessing data. Tree network can be expanded easily as child nodes can become parents of future nodes.
In tree network topology there are a lot of cables needed and maintenance is difficult to handle. If central backbone cable gets a problem then the whole network stops functioning.
Example of tree topology:
- Different floors can be connected to each other through combining star topology network and central bus backbone
- B-trees looks same as tree topology and it is used in different programming languages like MySQL, Redis, PostgreSQL and in filesystems including ext4, NTFS