Cisco CCNA (200-301)Network FundamentalsEasy
A data center architect is designing a new fabric and wants every leaf switch to be exactly two hops from every other leaf switch, ensuring predictable and consistent latency across the fabric. Which topology should be implemented?
- ARing topology
- BFull mesh topology
- CHub-and-spoke topology
- DSpine-leaf topology
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Spine-leaf topology
In a spine-leaf topology, every leaf switch connects to every spine switch, so traffic between any two leaf switches always traverses exactly two hops (leaf-spine-leaf), providing predictable, low-latency, non-blocking connectivity common in modern data centers.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Ring topology has variable hop counts depending on position and is not used for data center fabrics.
- B. Full mesh connects every device to every other device directly, which does not scale well and is not the standard data center design.
- C. Hub-and-spoke centralizes traffic through one hub, creating a bottleneck and inconsistent hop counts.
Spine-Leaf Topology
A data center network design where every leaf switch connects to every spine switch, ensuring consistent two-hop latency between any two leaf switches.
- Leaf switches connect to servers/hosts
- Spine switches interconnect all leaf switches
- Provides predictable latency and easy horizontal scaling
Memory trick: Spine-leaf: always two hops, like a leaf falling past the spine to another leaf.