the logical topology, in contrast to the "physical", is the signals act on the network media, or the way that the data passes through the network from one device to the next without regard to the physical interconnection of the devices. a network's logical topology is not necessarily the same as its physical topology. for example, twisted pair ethernet is a logical bus topology in a physical star topology layout. while ibm's token ring is a logical ring topology, it is physically set up in a star topology.