VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) is an overlay tunneling protocol that encapsulates Layer 2 Ethernet frames inside UDP/IP packets so they can traverse a routed Layer 3 underlay. It uses a 24-bit VXLAN Network Identifier, supporting about 16 million segments versus the 4,096-VLAN limit, making it a foundation for large-scale multi-tenant data center fabrics. It is defined in IETF RFC 7348.
Category: Network & Connectivity · Subcategory: Data Center Network Architecture · Part of the AIDC Technical Terminology reference.