Lineaariväylä

Lineaariväylä, or linear bus, is a fundamental concept in computer hardware and networking that describes a shared communication pathway. In this architecture, multiple devices are connected to a single transmission medium, and they all access this medium to send and receive data. When a device wants to transmit, it sends its data onto the bus, and all other devices on the bus receive it. However, only the intended recipient processes the data. This is typically achieved through addressing mechanisms where each device has a unique identifier.

The simplicity of a linear bus is its primary advantage, making it cost-effective and easy to implement. However, it also presents significant limitations. As more devices are added to the bus, the potential for collisions increases, where two or more devices attempt to transmit simultaneously, corrupting the data. To mitigate this, protocols like CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection) are employed, which involve devices listening to the bus before transmitting and detecting if a collision has occurred. Furthermore, the speed of data transfer is limited by the total traffic on the bus and the slowest device connected. Network length can also be a constraint, as signal degradation over long distances can lead to errors. Despite these drawbacks, the linear bus topology was a common choice in early local area networks (LANs) and remains relevant in certain embedded systems and specialized applications where its simplicity outweighs its performance limitations.