Communication between servers within the core side of the network is typically trusted and usually clear-text/un-encrypted, even if it was originally encrypted at the edge.
On the interconnect side of the
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s, the remote peers may or may not be trusted. Some interfaces maybe in clear text/un-encrypted, others may use IPsec or TLS to protect the interface. Scaling is much less of a concern than at the access side as there are typically far fewer peers.