What is a VRF, and how does it enable overlapping IP addresses in the same physical network?

What is a VRF, and how does it enable overlapping IP addresses in the same physical network?

• A. VRF is a routing protocol used to exchange routes between VRFs.
• B. VRF duplicates MAC addresses across VLANs.
• C. VRF compresses routing tables to save memory.
• D. VRF creates separate routing tables and forwarding instances; allows overlapping IP addresses in different VRFs, enabling multi-tenant segmentation on shared infrastructure.

Answer: (D)

VRF stands for Virtual Routing and Forwarding. It lets a single router run multiple independent routing tables and forwarding paths. Each VRF has its own set of routes, so traffic is looked up and forwarded within the context of that VRF. Interfaces are bound to a specific VRF, and the router uses the VRF’s routing table to decide how to forward packets. Because the routing tables are separate, the same IP subnet can exist in different VRFs on the same physical network, enabling overlapping addresses and true multi-tenant segmentation on shared infrastructure. In practice, VRFs are often used with MPLS VPNs to keep tenant networks isolated across a common backbone. The other possibilities aren’t about isolating routing state or allowing overlapping addresses, so they don’t fit VRF’s purpose.

VRF stands for Virtual Routing and Forwarding. It lets a single router run multiple independent routing tables and forwarding paths. Each VRF has its own set of routes, so traffic is looked up and forwarded within the context of that VRF. Interfaces are bound to a specific VRF, and the router uses the VRF’s routing table to decide how to forward packets. Because the routing tables are separate, the same IP subnet can exist in different VRFs on the same physical network, enabling overlapping addresses and true multi-tenant segmentation on shared infrastructure. In practice, VRFs are often used with MPLS VPNs to keep tenant networks isolated across a common backbone. The other possibilities aren’t about isolating routing state or allowing overlapping addresses, so they don’t fit VRF’s purpose.