During the first year of the Ohm Project (9/2000-8/2001), Ohm is configured in a simple star topology. The following diagram depicts this topology, with the 'master' nodes shown in light blue and the 'server' nodes shown in dark blue:

To implement this topology, each node has a single network interface card (NIC) connected to the switch, and all packets are routed via the switch. All computation-related communication thus occurs through the centralized switch for the first year. Communication between Ohm and the outside world is controlled via a firewall.

After collecting performance data in this configuration for six months, we alter the cluster's topology to its year 2 form.