Line Configuration in Computer Network

Line Configuration in Computer Network

In this tutorial, you are going to learn about Line Configuration in Computer Network and Types of Line Configuration.

Line Configuration - Computer Network

In a network, two or more nodes are connected by a communication link. The communication link can be wired or wireless. For visualization purposes, links are imagined as a line drawn between two points. For communication to happen, two nodes must be connected to the same link at the same time. This is called the line configuration or connection.

Types of Line Configuration

  1. Point-to-Point connection
  2. Multipoint Connection

Point-to-Point Connection

  • A point-to-point connection provides a dedicated link between two devices.
  • The entire capacity of the link is reserved for the transmission between those two devices.
  • Most point-to-point line configurations use an actual length of wire or cable to connect the two ends, but other options, such as microwave or satellite links, are also possible.
  • Point to point network topology is considered to be one of the easiest and most conventional network topologies. It is also the simplest to establish and understand. To visualize, one can consider point to point network topology as two phones connected end to end for a two way communication.

Here, Point-to-point communication between devices includes:

  1. Workstation to Workstation
  2. Mainframe to Workstation
  3. Satellite to Satellite

Multipoint Connection

  • It is also called Multidrop configuration or Broadcast connection.
  • In this connection, two or more devices share a single link.
  • Since more than two devices share the link, the capacity of the channel is shared now.
  • It can be spatial or temporal.
    1. Spatial - If several devices can share the link simultaneously, its called Spatially shared line configuration.
    2. Temporal - If there is a multi device, each device has their own turn to send the data.


This article on Line Configuration in Computer Network is contributed by Aditya Raj. If you like TheCode11, then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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