In SPF, what performance concern arises as topology databases grow larger?

• A. It Requires More Processing Power
• B. It Requires More Memory
• C. It Reduces Convergence
• D. It Uses Less Bandwidth

Answer: (A)

Short Path First recalculates the shortest-path tree from the router’s topology database, so it’s a computation-heavy process. As the database grows, there are more nodes and links to consider, which means more distance calculations and edge relaxations the router must perform. That added work translates directly into higher CPU usage and longer processing times for each SPF run, so the processing power required goes up with database size. Memory usage does rise as well since more data must be stored, but the performance concern most tied to increasing database size is the extra computation. The idea that convergence would improve isn’t accurate—larger graphs can take longer to converge—and bandwidth isn’t the primary factor here since SPF work happens inside the router rather than consuming network bandwidth.