Which topology is typically more scalable for many sites due to direct tunnels between sites?

• A. Hub-and-spoke is more scalable for many sites.
• B. Full mesh reduces direct tunnels and is more scalable.
• C. Partial mesh topology is typically more scalable for many sites because it enables direct tunnels between many sites while avoiding a single bottleneck hub.
• D. Mesh with central hub always required.

Answer: (C)

Scalability with many sites comes from balancing direct connectivity and avoiding a single bottleneck. Hub-and-spoke routes all traffic through a central hub, which becomes overwhelmed as sites grow, creating a bottleneck and a single point of failure. A full mesh sounds ideal for direct paths, but the number of tunnels grows rapidly with each added site (quadratically), making it hard to deploy, manage, and maintain.

Partial mesh offers a practical middle ground. Many sites still have direct tunnels to several peers so traffic can travel efficiently without backhauling to a central point, but not every possible site pair is connected. This reduces tunnel counts and management complexity while preserving direct-path performance and redundancy, which is why it’s typically more scalable for large networks.