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DOC: Proofread geneve.rst
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Update docs/configuration/interfaces/geneve.rst
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63 changes: 36 additions & 27 deletions docs/configuration/interfaces/geneve.rst
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,28 +1,32 @@
:lastproofread: 2023-01-20
:lastproofread: 2026-02-02

.. _geneve-interface:

######
GENEVE
Geneve
######

:abbr:`GENEVE (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation)` supports all of
the capabilities of :abbr:`VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN)`, :abbr:`NVGRE
(Network Virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation)`, and :abbr:`STT
(Stateless Transport Tunneling)` and was designed to overcome their perceived
limitations. Many believe GENEVE could eventually replace these earlier formats
entirely.
:abbr:`Geneve (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation)` interfaces
operate as virtual network ports. Administrators can apply standard network
configurations on them, such as IP addressing, bridging, or firewall rules,
just as they would on physical Ethernet ports.

GENEVE is designed to support network virtualization use cases, where tunnels
are typically established to act as a backplane between the virtual switches
residing in hypervisors, physical switches, or middleboxes or other appliances.
An arbitrary IP network can be used as an underlay through Clos networks - A
technique for composing network fabrics larger than a single switch while
maintaining non-blocking bandwidth across connection points. ECMP is used to
divide traffic across the multiple links and switches that constitute the
fabric. Sometimes termed "leaf and spine" or "fat tree" topologies.
To transport data across the network, they utilize the Geneve encapsulation protocol. This
protocol encapsulates Layer 2 Ethernet frames originating from endpoints such
as virtual machines, containers, or physical servers inside UDP packets. It
unifies the features of earlier encapsulation protocols, including VXLAN,
NVGRE, and STT, and addresses their limitations, such as fixed header
structures and a lack of metadata support. Because of its extensibility, Geneve
may eventually replace those older protocols.

Geneve Header:
Geneve tunnels are used to connect virtual switches residing within
hypervisors, physical switches, middleboxes, and other network appliances.

Geneve tunnels operate over any standard IP network. In larger deployments,
the underlying network (underlay) is often built using a **Clos** topology,
also known as a *leaf-and-spine* or *fat-tree* topology.

Geneve header:

.. code-block:: none

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -69,24 +73,29 @@ Common interface configuration
:var0: geneve
:var1: gnv0

GENEVE options
Geneve options
==============

.. cfgcmd:: set interfaces geneve gnv0 remote <address>

Configure GENEVE tunnel far end/remote tunnel endpoint.
Configure the remote endpoint IP address for the Geneve tunnel.

.. cfgcmd:: set interfaces geneve gnv0 vni <vni>

:abbr:`VNI (Virtual Network Identifier)` is an identifier for a unique
element of a virtual network. In many situations this may represent an L2
segment, however, the control plane defines the forwarding semantics of
decapsulated packets. The VNI MAY be used as part of ECMP forwarding
decisions or MAY be used as a mechanism to distinguish between overlapping
address spaces contained in the encapsulated packet when load balancing
across CPUs.
**Configure** :abbr:`VNI (Virtual Network Identifier)` **for the Geneve
interface.**

The VNI is a virtual network identifier. It allows multiple virtual networks to
share the same physical infrastructure and remain isolated.

The VNI is also used to distribute traffic after it leaves the tunnel, for
example, to map packets with overlapping IP addresses to specific routing
tables or to distribute traffic across multiple CPU cores.

.. cfgcmd:: set interfaces gnv0 <interface> port <port>

Configure port number of remote GENEVE endpoint.
**Configure the destination UDP port for the remote Geneve tunnel endpoint.**

Ensure the remote peer is configured to listen on this specific port.