Which of the following is the main reason why SD-WAN requires high-specification devices?

While encryption (IPsec) is important, the "Intelligence" in SD-WAN comes from Application-based Routing . To perform Intelligent Traffic Steering , the gateway must identify traffic not just by IP/Port (L3/L4), but by the actual application (L7), such as distinguishing between Office 365 and YouTube. This requires DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) and complex signature matching, which is significantly more CPU and memory intensive than traditional destination-based routing, thus necessitating high-specification hardware.