Leaf-spine fabric
A leaf-spine fabric creates repeatable east-west paths when every leaf reaches every spine and the routing design uses those paths.
How it works
Connect access leaf switches to all spine switches while keeping same-role switches out of the forwarding path in the basic fabric.
Where it fits
Scale-out workloads needing predictable hop structure, multipath capacity and repeatable expansion units.
Where it breaks
Port radix, oversubscription, routing behavior, failure convergence and border dependencies are left implicit.
Tradeoff register
- Predictable fabric structure
- Supports equal-cost multipath designs
- Consumes fabric ports and optics as it scales
Interactive teaching model
This card connects to the network lab. Its output is a bounded calculation or an illustrative directional model, not measured site data or a commissioned design result.
Source register
These sources support the teaching summary. Use current standards, site engineering and authority approval for real work.
- Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Design Guide
Cisco · Public web guide · reviewed 2026-08-26. Rights note: Link and summarize with vendor context; do not present a product architecture as a universal standard. - ANSI/TIA-942 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers
Telecommunications Industry Association · Public overview; full standard is paid · reviewed 2026-08-26. Rights note: Link and summarize the public overview; do not reproduce normative text.