Full Mesh WAN: Informed Decisions and Always-On Backup Paths

Design high availability for enterprise WAN for on-premises, hybrid, and cloud solutions
Answer Correct answer: A — A full mesh lets every node see all routes (informed decisions), keeps a backup path always available, and uses a suboptimal path only after a failure.

An architect must design a topology for a WAN network that satisfies these requirements: • Devices must be able to make informed decisions. • Suboptimal paths are allowed only in case of a failure. • Backup paths must always be available. Which topology must the architect select?

  1. full mesh Correct Answer
  2. Clos
  3. partial mesh
  4. hub and spoke

Community Votes

A
100%

100% of anonymous learners picked answer A. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Community Insight

Full mesh = maximum path diversity and no single point of failure, matching 'backup paths always available' and 'suboptimal only on failure'. Hub-and-spoke fails the 'always available backup' test (hub is a SPoF).

A full-mesh WAN connects every site to every other site. Each device has full routing knowledge (informed decisions), a backup path to every peer always exists, and traffic only takes a suboptimal path when a primary link fails. Partial mesh/hub-and-spoke have single points of failure.

Picking D (hub and spoke): the hub is a single point of failure, so backup paths are NOT always available — directly contradicting the requirement. Partial mesh (C) has fewer backups than full mesh.

Community Discussion (3 comments)

PicoOstrava 👍 3 Selected: A
D. Hub and Spoke: This topology is the least ideal because it has a single central hub to which all spokes are connected. If the hub fails, all spokes lose connectivity. While it may have a backup path in some designs, it's not as resilient as a full mesh.
muffedtrims 👍 3 Selected: A
Full mesh, is the only option for backup paths must always be available
Seb82 👍 4 Selected: A
Full mesh

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Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

A is correct. A full mesh gives every node a direct link to every other node, so each makes informed routing decisions with full topology knowledge, always has a backup path, and only uses a suboptimal path after a failure.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

C (partial mesh) and D (hub-and-spoke) have fewer paths and single points of failure, so backup paths are not always available. B (Clos) is a data-center fabric topology, not a WAN branch topology for this requirement.

Community Comment Notes

The vote is A (100). Commenters state full mesh is the only option where backup paths are always available; hub-and-spoke fails because the hub is a single point of failure.

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