What Is Overlay Virtualization?

The topic of discussion today is overlay networks. Imagine you're at a party where everyone is wearing a virtual reality headset that allows them to see a different world. You need to find out where you are and what's going on. Within the confines of this virtual reality exists a community of individuals who are all linked to one another. This network serves as an illustration of what is known as an overlay network. A network that is established on top of another network is called an overlay network. For example, the virtual reality network at the party is an overlay network. It's the same as putting another layer on top of the one already in the network. With the help of this additional layer, one can produce a virtual network that is distinct from the actual network that lies behind it. In peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, where a collection of computers are connected to each other to share resources, overlay networks are frequently utilized. An example of an overlay network is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network such as BitTorrent. Instead of communicating with one another through a central server, the computers in this kind of network are directly connected. Creating virtual networks on top of existing physical networks is another application for overlay networks, which can also be done using cloud computing. This can be helpful for activities such as testing and development, where it is necessary to constantly build up and tear down networks. VXLAN and NVGRE are two examples of the many various networking technologies that can be utilized in the production of overlay networks. Creating virtual local area networks (LANs) on top of a real network can be done via VXLAN, which stands for Virtual Extensible LAN. Another method that can be utilized for creating overlay networks is NVGRE, which stands for Network Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation. That concludes our concise introduction to overlay networks. They are networks constructed on top of another network, similar to a virtual reality network that is built on top of the real world. P2P (peer-to-peer) systems and cloud computing frequently use them to construct virtual networks.