Spoke–hub distribution paradigm

The spoke-hub distribution paradigm (or model or network) is a system of connections arranged like a wire wheel in which all traffic moves along spokes connected to the hub at the center. The model is commonly used in industry, particularly in transport, telecommunications, freight, and distributed computing (where it is known as a star network).

The hub-and-spoke model is most frequently compared to the point-to-point transit model.

In 1955, Delta Air Lines pioneered the hub and spoke system at its hub in Atlanta, Georgia, in an effort to compete with Eastern Air Lines. In the mid-1970s FedEx adopted the hub and spoke model for overnight package delivery. After the airline industry was deregulated in 1978, Delta's hub and spoke paradigm was adopted by several other airlines.

Airlines have extended the hub-and-spoke model in various ways. One method is to create additional hubs on a regional basis and to create major routes between them. That reduces the need to travel long distances between nodes near one another. Another method is to use focus cities to implement point-to-point service for high-traffic routes and to bypass the hub entirely.

The spoke-hub model is applicable to other forms of transportation as well:

For passenger road transport, the spoke-hub model does not apply because drivers generally take the shortest or fastest route between two points.

The hub-and-spoke model has also been used in economic geography theory to classify a particular type of industrial district. Ann Markusen, an economic geographer, theorized about industrial districts, with a number of key industrial firms and facilities acting as a hub, with associated businesses and suppliers benefiting from their presence and arranged around them like the spokes of a wheel. The chief characteristic of such hub-and-spoke industrial districts is the importance of one or more large companies, usually in one industrial sector, surrounded by smaller, associated businesses. Examples of cities with such districts include Seattle (where Boeing was founded), Silicon Valley (a high tech hub), and Toyota City, with Toyota.

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