Architecture Comparisons

Architecture	Cable	Speed	Topology	Nodes/Net	Max Repeat	Max Seg Length
Ethernet	thinnet, thicknet, UTP, or fiber	10-100Mbps	Star / bus for thinnet and thicknet	varies	varies	varies
Token Ring	STP or UTP	4 or 16Mbps	star-ring	72 UTP/260 STP	33	Node 45(UTP)/101(STP) meters
						MAU 45(UTP)/200(STP/1K fiber (meters)
ARCnet	Coax, UTP or fiber	2.5Mbps or 20	star-bus	255		600/121/3485 meters
AppleTalk	STP	230.4Kbps	Bus	254	8 segments max	300 meters
FDDI	fiber	100Mbps	Double ring	500		2 kilometers