tree topology
termnetworking
A hierarchy of stars: a root branching into layers, with no loops in the intended design.
The classic campus three-tier build, core to distribution to access, is a tree, and its virtue is that aggregation and policy land at predictable layers. Because the design assumes no loops, an accidental one is a broadcast storm, which is why spanning tree exists as the automatic loop-breaker. Modern data centers largely abandoned the strict tree for spine-leaf, wanting equal-cost paths rather than a single upward branch.
Also known as: hierarchical topology, three-tier