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Difficulty: HardNetwork Topologies and Types

An automated logistics facility operates five separate warehouse buildings located within a single contiguous 200-acre industrial park owned by the company. The IT team must interconnect the core switches of all five buildings to support real-time inventory tracking with minimal latency. The design requires redundant paths so that if any single inter-building optical cable segment is severed, traffic automatically reroutes without disconnecting any building. However, budget constraints prevent installing dedicated fiber links between every possible building pair. Which network type classification and topology combination best satisfies these requirements?

  1. Campus Area Network (CAN) using a partial mesh topologyAnswer
  2. B
    Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) using a physical bus topology
  3. C
    Local Area Network (LAN) using a full mesh topology
  4. D
    Wide Area Network (WAN) using a physical star topology

Answer

Campus Area Network (CAN) using a partial mesh topology
The deployment spans multiple buildings on a single corporate campus, placing it under the Campus Area Network (CAN) classification. To achieve fault tolerance against single fiber cuts while keeping costs within budget, a partial mesh topology is optimal because it provides redundant inter-building paths without requiring the expensive n(n−1)/2n(n-1)/2 links of a full mesh.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the geographic scope of the deployment.
Connecting five buildings located within a single 200-acre corporate industrial park constitutes a Campus Area Network (CAN), as it spans multiple buildings across a contiguous, privately owned property.
Geographic network classifications are defined by physical extent: LAN is typically a single building, CAN covers multiple adjacent buildings on shared property, MAN covers a municipality, and WAN covers broad geographic regions.
2
Evaluate the redundancy and financial constraints for the physical topology.
A partial mesh topology provides multiple redundant interconnect pathways between critical nodes without requiring links between every possible node pair.
A full mesh topology for 5 nodes would require 10 dedicated links (n(n−1)/2n(n-1)/2), which violates the budget constraint. A star or bus topology lacks redundant links and creates single points of failure. A partial mesh balances cost with fault tolerance.
3
Synthesize the optimal network classification and topology choice.
Combining a CAN classification with a partial mesh topology fulfills both the geographic scope and high-availability criteria within budget limits.
This combination ensures continuous multi-building connectivity during single cable cuts while keeping installation costs reasonable.

Key Concept

Classification of network geographic scopes (CAN vs LAN/MAN/WAN) and selection of resilient physical topologies (Partial Mesh vs Full Mesh/Star/Bus).
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Topics

Network Topologies and Types

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