QSC Audio RAVE 80 - Manual (Page 9)

8
Star topology
Advantages: greater network size—up to 200 meters (656 feet); high reliability; readily expandable; uses
standard Ethernet patch cables
Disadvantages: higher cost
Add nodes—i.e., RAVE units—to the previ-
ous net layout and you have the classic star
topology. This name comes from the hub
being at the center and the nodes radiating
out from it like the points of a star. It doesn’t
matter if the nodes are actually right next to
one another while the hub is in another
room—it’s still a star topology. You can
connect as many RAVE units as there are ports on the hub.
Distributed star topology
Advantages: greater network size; high reliability; readily expandable; uses standard Ethernet patch
cables
Disadvantages: higher cost
What do you do when you have more RAVE units than available hub ports? Add more hubs, of course. Most Fast
Ethernet hubs now are stackable, either through an uplink port that lets you connect an additional hub to one
already in the network, or through a backplane connection. The resulting network topolgy is called a distributed
star, because it is made up of interconnected multiple stars. The maximum UTP cable length from hub to hub,
or from hub to RAVE unit, is 100 meters (328 feet).
The example shown on the following page uses three hubs. The maximum size of this particular CobraNet network
would be 400 meters (1312 feet), allowing two 100-meter cable runs among the three hubs, plus 100-meter cable
runs on the end hubs.
You can expand the distances even further by daisy-chaining more hubs and cable segments. There are technical
and practical limits to this strategy; see the section on network limitations for further information.
Star network topology
LONGER DISTANCE THROUGH FIBER
Sometimes a network may span long distances without any practical need for hubs distributed along the way.
The computer networking industry, on whom we’re already relying for an economical and rugged transport
medium, has an answer to this need also: fiber optics.