Episode 25 — Picking a Topology: star, mesh, hub-and-spoke, point-to-point
Topology selection in CloudNetX scenarios is about matching connectivity structure to traffic patterns, resilience needs, and operational capacity, and this episode explains how to make that selection deliberately. It defines star topologies as centralizing connectivity around a core device or site, mesh topologies as providing multiple direct paths between nodes, hub-and-spoke as consolidating routing through a central hub, and point-to-point as dedicated connectivity between two endpoints. The first paragraph focuses on the fundamental tradeoffs: stars and hubs simplify management but concentrate failure risk, meshes improve resilience but increase cost and complexity, and point-to-point links provide clarity but do not scale gracefully. It also explains how topology choice affects latency, bandwidth utilization, and policy enforcement, especially in hybrid environments where inspection or shared services may live at centralized locations.
