ring topology
termnetworking
Each node connects to exactly two neighbors, forming a closed loop that traffic travels around.
Token Ring and FDDI made it famous: a token circulating the loop granted the right to transmit, which produced deterministic, collision-free behavior that Ethernet could not match at the time. Dual counter-rotating rings gave FDDI its self-healing wrap on a break. Ethernet's economics eventually won anyway, but rings never left, they moved into the metro and optical layer, where SONET/SDH and resilient ring protocols still exploit the same property.
Also known as: dual ring