VXLAN

VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) is a network virtualization technology designed to address scalability issues in large cloud and data center environments.

It extends traditional VLANs by encapsulating Ethernet frames within UDP packets, enabling the creation of virtualized layer 2 networks over an existing layer 3 network. This encapsulation allows for the deployment of millions of isolated networks, overcoming the 4,096 VLAN limit.

For network engineers, VXLAN facilitates network segmentation across distributed environments, enabling the encapsulation of broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast traffic while maintaining larger and more flexible network architectures.