fullmesh

Fullmesh, or full mesh, refers to a network topology in which every node has a direct link to every other node. This arrangement provides the shortest possible communication path between any two nodes and maximal redundancy, since multiple independent paths are available if some links fail.

In a network with n nodes, the number of physical links required for a full mesh is n(n-1)/2. As the number of nodes grows, the wiring, provisioning, and management complexity increase rapidly, making full mesh impractical for large networks. Consequently, full meshes are most common in small networks or specialized backbones where latency and fault tolerance are paramount.

Advantages of a full mesh include low latency for direct communication between any pair of nodes and straightforward routing, since the optimal path is often the direct link. The topology also offers high resilience to individual link failures, as alternative direct paths exist. Disadvantages center on cost and complexity: the number of links grows quadratically with the number of nodes, increasing cabling, equipment, and maintenance requirements, which limits scalability.

Variants and alternatives include partial mesh, where some node pairs are directly connected while others use intermediate nodes, and hybrid approaches that combine mesh concepts with centralized control. Software-defined networking and centralized routing can help emulate full-mesh behavior with fewer physical links. In data centers, scalable alternatives such as Clos or fat-tree topologies achieve similar connectivity and redundancy without a true full mesh.

See also network topology, mesh network, partial mesh, hybrid topology.