CompTIA Network+ Practice Test

What does the VXLAN Network Identifier (VNI) help to differentiate?

1. Different types of network hardware

2. Different network protocols

3. Different VXLAN overlay networks

4. Different subnets

The correct answer is: Different VXLAN overlay networks

The VXLAN Network Identifier (VNI) is a crucial component in the VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) technology that enables the creation of virtual overlay networks on top of existing network infrastructure. The VNI specifically acts as a unique identifier for each VXLAN segment, allowing multiple isolated virtual networks to coexist on the same physical network infrastructure. This is particularly important in large-scale cloud environments, where it is necessary to separate and segment traffic among various tenants or applications for security, performance, and management purposes. By utilizing a 24-bit field, the VNI can represent up to 16 million unique segments (from 0 to 16,777,215). Each segment can be considered a separate logical network, meaning that devices on different VNIs cannot directly communicate with one another unless specifically configured to do so. This segmentation capability is what establishes the independence of various VXLAN overlay networks, thereby facilitating network virtualization and improving scalability in data centers. In contrast, the other answer choices pertain to aspects that the VNI does not differentiate. For instance, the VNI does not distinguish between different types of network hardware or protocols, nor does it identify specific subnets within an IP addressing scheme. Its primary function is centered exclusively on managing and separating traffic