What is a mesh topology disadvantage?

• A. High cost
• B. Easy to implement
• C. Difficulty scaling
• D. Low maintenance

Answer: (C)

In a mesh topology, every node has direct links to many or all other nodes, which gives excellent redundancy and fault tolerance. The disadvantage being tested here is how this type of network behaves as you add more devices. The number of required interconnections grows very quickly—roughly n(n−1)/2 links for n nodes in a full mesh. That means when you scale up even modestly, the amount of wiring, hardware, and management effort increases dramatically, making the network increasingly hard to implement and maintain and often prohibitively expensive. So, the big hurdle as the network grows is the difficulty of scaling.

High cost is indeed a drawback, because more links mean more material and expense, but the fundamental scalability issue explains why a full mesh becomes impractical for larger networks. Partial mesh designs can help by limiting connections while preserving some redundancy.