GRE, MPLS, IPsec or DMVPN?

About this interactive

Four technologies from this module: - **GRE** (0020): Cisco's generic routing encapsulation adds an outer IP header and a GRE header, so routing protocols and their multicast can cross a network you do not control. It does not encrypt; wrap it in IPsec (GRE over IPsec) for that. - **MPLS** (0030): a carrier's service that labels traffic at the edge and switches on the label instead of looking up each IP header, with quality of service and any-to-any site connectivity. - **IPsec** (0050): a suite of standards that secures IP traffic, with AH or ESP, transport or tunnel mode, and a cipher suite of encryption, integrity, authentication and key exchange. - **DMVPN** (0070): Cisco's dynamic multipoint VPN; spokes build one tunnel to a hub and learn from it how to reach each other directly, instead of a full mesh of n(n - 1) / 2 VPNs.

What you'll learn

Choose the tunneling or VPN technology that fits a need: GRE, MPLS, IPsec or DMVPN
Tell them apart by what each does: GRE tunnels without encryption, MPLS is a carrier's label-switched service, IPsec secures IP traffic, DMVPN builds dynamic hub-and-spoke VPNs

Aligned to

Cisco CCNA

5.5 Describe IPsec remote access and site-to-site VPNs

1.2 Describe characteristics of network topology architectures

Key terms

Generic Routing Encapsulation: A tunneling protocol developed by Cisco that encapsulates a wide variety of network layer protocols inside point-to-point virtual links, enabling the transport of protocols that would not normally be routable. GRE tunnels are stateless and do not provide encryption, so they are often combined with IPsec for secure VPN deployments.
Multiprotocol Label Switching: A high-performance packet-forwarding technique that directs traffic using short fixed-length labels rather than network addresses, enabling fast switching independent of upper-layer protocols. MPLS is widely deployed by service providers to build scalable VPNs, traffic-engineered WAN paths, and quality-of-service-enabled networks.
IPsec: A suite of protocols that authenticates and encrypts IP packets to provide secure communication over a network.
Dynamic Multipoint VPN: A Cisco proprietary protocol that uses a hub-and-spoke architecture to enable scalable VPN connectivity, allowing spokes to dynamically establish direct tunnels with one another without routing all traffic through the hub.
GRE over IPsec: An encapsulation method where traffic is first wrapped in a GRE tunnel and then encrypted by IPsec, securing the entire GRE packet including its inner payload.

Topics

Tunneling Vpn Gre Mpls Ipsec Dmvpn Interactive Categorize

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