What are the advantages of using a hub-and-spoke IPSec VPN configuration instead of a fully-meshed set of IPSec tunnels? (Select all that apply below)

A hub-and-spoke IPsec VPN topology offers significant advantages in scalability and manageability over a fully-meshed design. The primary benefit is the reduction in the number of required tunnels. In a network with 'n' sites, a hub-and-spoke model requires only n-1 tunnels, whereas a full mesh requires n(n-1)/2 tunnels. This drastic reduction simplifies both the initial setup and ongoing maintenance. Consequently, routing management is also simplified. Each spoke device typically only needs a summary or default route pointing to the central hub for all inter-site traffic, while the hub centralizes the more complex routing logic. This contrasts with a full mesh, where every site needs specific routes to every other site.

A. A standard hub-and-spoke topology creates a single point of failure at the hub, making it inherently less redundant than a fully-meshed design where multiple paths exist.

C. The choice of VPN topology does not influence the strength of the encryption. The same cryptographic algorithms (e.g., AES-256) can be configured for either topology.

1. Fortinet Training Institute

FortiGate Security 7.2 Study Guide

2022.

Page 268

"Hub-and-Spoke" section: "The main advantage of this topology is scalability. You don't need to create a full mesh of tunnels between all the remote locations. Also

the configuration on the spoke devices is simple. They just need to build a single tunnel to the hub and route all the traffic for the remote subnets through it." This statement directly supports the correctness of options B and D.

2. Fortinet Training Institute

FortiGate Infrastructure 7.2 Study Guide

2022.

Page 298

"Hub-and-Spoke" section: This section reiterates the same points: "The main advantage of this topology is scalability. You don't need to create a full mesh of tunnels between all the remote locations. Also

the configuration on the spoke devices is simple." This confirms that fewer tunnels lead to simpler configuration (Option B) and routing (Option D).

3. Fortinet Document Library

IPsec VPN for FortiOS 7.4.0

2023.

Section: "Hub-and-spoke": "In a hub-and-spoke configuration

spokes only need to establish one IPsec tunnel to the hub to communicate with all other spokes. This simplifies the configuration on the spokes." This directly validates option B. The document also implicitly supports option D by describing how spokes route traffic via the central hub

simplifying their routing tables.