Final answer:
The ends of the cable in a bus network use a terminator to absorb signals so that they are not reflected back to network components. Terminators are vital for maintaining signal integrity by preventing echoes or degradation that could interfere with network performance. Option A is the correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
When examining the design of a bus network, it's important to understand that data signals need to be managed to prevent them from bouncing back and forth along the bus, which could cause interference with new signals and degrade network performance.
The component used at the ends of the cable in a bus network to prevent this is known as a terminator. Terminators are crucial because they absorb the signals that reach the end of the bus, ensuring that they don't reflect back onto the bus and interfere with the network's communication process.
These terminators are resistive elements specifically matched to the network's characteristic impedance. If they are improperly matched or absent altogether, the signals on the bus can reflect, causing echoes or signal degradation, which can result in reduced network reliability and performance. Networks such as the now-obsolete 10BASE2 (thinnet) and 10BASE5 (thicknet) Ethernet systems used terminators to maintain signal integrity across their respective bus topologies.
To address the student's schoolwork question more directly, the correct term for the device used at the ends of the cable in a bus network to absorb signals so that they are not reflected back to network components that have already received the signals is a terminator. Hence, the correct option answer in the final answer is a) terminator.