Skip to content

NVO3: Geneve + EVPN applicability + Active OAM for Geneve — draft-ietf-nvo3-geneve, draft-ietf-nvo3-evpn-applicability, draft-ietf-nvo3-geneve-oam#

IETF 123 (Madrid) digest Program Core pick Madrid · 19–25 July 2025

  • Tier: Core
  • Why: This is the datacenter overlay stack you work on directly. The WG settled on Geneve as the common encapsulation (over VXLAN-GPE/GUE), EVPN is the unified control plane for NVE auto-discovery and MAC/IP dissemination, and the missing piece operationally — OAM for Geneve — is being framed here. The encap choice and its OAM story affect both software and hardware tunnel-endpoint implementations.
  • What: geneve specifies the flexible, extensible overlay encapsulation designed to accommodate evolving software and hardware tunnel endpoints. evpn-applicability describes using EVPN as the NVO3 control plane (auto-discovery, MAC mobility, multihoming, DCI) without introducing new EVPN procedures or requiring PIM in the underlay. geneve-oam frames the OAM functions needed to monitor and troubleshoot Geneve overlays. (from abstract only)
  • How: Geneve uses extensible option fields so new capabilities ship without a new wire format; EVPN reuses BGP for the overlay control plane while keeping the underlay IP fabric independent; the OAM draft sets requirements for active monitoring across the overlay path.
  • Where applicable: Multi-tenant DC fabrics. Note the encapsulation-considerations work flags a real operational constraint: mixing encapsulations along a path makes things like path-MTU discovery and OAM harder — relevant if you run heterogeneous hardware/software endpoints.