Star Continued
Star advantages continued:
- The star does not require manual termination. The media is terminated in the station at the transceiver on the NIC, and in the hub or MAU.
The star topology has its disadvantages:
- Hubs are more expensive than bus connectors.
- A failure at the hub can affect the entire configuration.
- Star topologies use more cable than bus topologies because separate wires run to each individual station.
Hubs typically function as repeaters in a star configuration.
These hubs are active hubs because they repeat the signal before passing it on. Active hubs, the most common kind in use today, require their own source of electricity.