Which protocol is commonly used for encapsulating packets in NSX-T Overlay networks?

In NSX-T Overlay networks, VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) is the protocol commonly used for encapsulating packets. This encapsulation allows for the creation of logical Layer 2 networks over a physical Layer 3 infrastructure, which is essential in a virtualized environment where multiple tenants or applications need to operate independently within the same physical network.

VXLAN uses a 24-bit segment ID (VNI - VXLAN Network Identifier) that supports up to 16 million unique isolated segments, making it highly scalable. This capability addresses the challenges of network isolation and scalability, especially in large cloud environments.

While other protocols like GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) can also encapsulate packets, they do not provide the same level of scalability and flexibility as VXLAN for overlay networks. Additionally, protocols like IPSec are primarily used for security and encryption rather than general packet encapsulation in networking scenarios. Meanwhile, HTTP is an application layer protocol used for web traffic and is not related to packet encapsulation in networking contexts. Thus, VXLAN stands out as the correct choice for encapsulating packets in NSX-T overlay networks.