spine
A spine is a high-capacity network switch that forms the core or backbone of a network fabric in a leaf-spine topology, providing high-speed interconnectivity between leaf switches.
Spine switches operate at the core layer of a leaf-spine network, connecting multiple leaf switches and facilitating efficient, high-bandwidth traffic flows across the network fabric. They are designed for non-blocking, low-latency switching and are essential for scaling data center and cloud environments.
Spine switches support high port counts, redundancy, and advanced features such as ECMP (Equal-Cost Multi-Path) routing. Their deployment ensures predictable performance, high availability, and efficient resource utilization.
Best practices include selecting spine switches with sufficient scalability, implementing redundant paths, and monitoring traffic patterns to optimize network performance.