--- title: SRv6 as a Host-to-Host Overlay « ipSpace.net blog description: A critical analysis of SRv6 as a host-to-host overlay protocol, arguing it offers no meaningful advantage over established alternatives like VXLAN and GENEVE... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/srv6-as-a-host-to-host-overlay-ipspace-net-blog-2yhx1h2xl twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: SRv6 as a Host-to-Host Overlay « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: A critical analysis of SRv6 as a host-to-host overlay protocol, arguing it offers no meaningful advantage over established alternatives like VXLAN and GENEVE... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/srv6-as-a-host-to-host-overlay-ipspace-net-blog-2yhx1h2xl og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/2yhX1H2XL.png og:image:alt: SRv6 as a Host-to-Host Overlay « ipSpace.net blog og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # SRv6 as a Host-to-Host Overlay « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A critical analysis of SRv6 as a host-to-host overlay protocol, arguing it offers no meaningful advantage over established alternatives like VXLAN and GENEVE for virtual networking or service insertion. The post examines two primary use cases — virtual networks and service insertion — and finds that commercial implementations (AWS Gateway Load Balancer, Azure Gateway Load Balancer, VMware NSX-T) all rely on VXLAN or GENEVE, not SRv6. Comments from readers update the picture significantly: OpenAI, Microsoft, and Oracle have since deployed SRv6 at scale for AI supercomputer networking, specifically for deterministic, source-based routing in large GPU clusters — a use case the original post acknowledged but dismissed as niche. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What overlay protocols do AWS Gateway Load Balancer, Azure Gateway Load Balancer, and VMware NSX-T use for service insertion? AWS Gateway Load Balancer uses GENEVE, Azure Gateway Load Balancer uses two VXLAN tunnels between the load balancer and each appliance, and VMware NSX-T uses GENEVE for east-west service insertion. None of these major commercial implementations use SRv6. VMware NSX-T's north-south service insertion is simple VLAN stitching. _Teams evaluating service insertion architectures track real production choices like these on daily.dev._ ### Are there real production deployments of SRv6 at hyperscaler scale? Yes. OpenAI uses SRv6 for pretraining AI models, replacing dynamic routing with static SRv6 paths on commercial merchant silicon running SONiC. Oracle Cloud uses SRv6 for source-based routing to give NICs control over exact packet paths through the datacenter. Microsoft uses static SRv6 in AI supercomputer networks for deterministic, reproducible paths. _Engineers building or evaluating large-scale AI cluster networking follow SRv6 adoption developments on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [SRv6: From 5G networks to AI infrastructure—a journey of innovation](https://daily.dev/posts/srv6-from-5g-networks-to-ai-infrastructure-a-journey-of-innovation-dgebr25fq) · Cisco · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [IPng Networks](https://daily.dev/posts/ipng-networks-u37jx9af5) · IPng Networks · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Configuring SRv6 on Junos \(Locator and IGP\) « ipSpace.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/configuring-srv6-on-junos-locator-and-igp-ipspace-net-blog-bhavnkj81) · ipSpace.net Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [MRC and SRv6: How Foundational Networking Innovations Are Enabling the Next Generation of AI Supercomputers](https://daily.dev/posts/mrc-and-srv6-how-foundational-networking-innovations-are-enabling-the-next-generation-of-ai-superco-zifro0frx) · Cisco · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I spent a WEEK without IPv4 to understand IPv6 transition mechanisms](https://daily.dev/posts/i-spent-a-week-without-ipv4-to-understand-ipv6-transition-mechanisms-iscykz0il) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/srv6-as-a-host-to-host-overlay-ipspace-net-blog-2yhx1h2xl) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"SRv6 as a Host-to-Host Overlay « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/srv6-as-a-host-to-host-overlay-ipspace-net-blog-2yhx1h2xl","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/srv6-as-a-host-to-host-overlay-ipspace-net-blog-2yhx1h2xl"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:54:55.440Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:21:01.092Z","description":"A critical analysis of SRv6 as a host-to-host overlay protocol, arguing it offers no meaningful advantage over established alternatives like VXLAN and GENEVE...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0_ODbtD2--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2008","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0_ODbtD2--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2008","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"ipSpace.net Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ipSpace.net Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--xS7E82MT--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438303/logos/ipspace?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/srv6-as-a-host-to-host-overlay-ipspace-net-blog-2yhx1h2xl","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ipSpace.net Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"SRv6 as a Host-to-Host Overlay « ipSpace.net blog"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/srv6-as-a-host-to-host-overlay-ipspace-net-blog-2yhx1h2xl#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What overlay protocols do AWS Gateway Load Balancer, Azure Gateway Load Balancer, and VMware NSX-T use for service insertion?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"AWS Gateway Load Balancer uses GENEVE, Azure Gateway Load Balancer uses two VXLAN tunnels between the load balancer and each appliance, and VMware NSX-T uses GENEVE for east-west service insertion. 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