What is a disadvantage of bus topology?

A bus topology consists of a single central cable, known as the backbone, to which all network nodes are connected. One of the significant disadvantages of this configuration is that if the backbone experiences a failure, the entire network goes down. This means that all connected devices are unable to communicate with each other, leading to a complete network outage.

This vulnerability highlights a critical weakness of bus topology; the reliance on a single point of failure makes it less reliable compared to other topologies, such as star or mesh, where the failure of one connection or device does not necessarily cripple the entire network. While there are other concerns related to cabling requirements, troubleshooting, and data-sharing efficiency, the central issue with bus topology is its susceptibility to failure at the backbone, rendering it unusable until that fault is resolved.