Topologies evaluated in terms of five parameters:
Minimum number of channels cut which separate the network into equal halves.
Bisection bandwidth is B channel bandwidth.
Number of channels incident on a node.
Longest shortest path.
A topology is symmetric if it is isomorphic to itself with any node labelled as the origin.
Two broad classes of topologies:
Direct Networks -- Every switch is attached to a processing node.
Indirect Networks -- Not every switch is attached to a processing node.