What is CNI (Container Network Interface)?
A specification and plugins for configuring network interfaces in Linux containers.
CNI (Container Network Interface) is a standard interface between container runtimes and network plugins. When Kubernetes creates a pod, it calls the CNI plugin to set up the pod's network interface, assign an IP, and configure routing. Popular CNI plugins include Calico, Cilium, Flannel, and AWS VPC CNI. Your choice of CNI affects performance, network policy support, and encryption capabilities.
Related Terms
More Networking Terms
API Gateway
A server that acts as entry point for APIs, handling routing, auth, and rate limiting.
Cilium
eBPF-based networking, security, and observability for Kubernetes clusters.
eBPF
A Linux kernel technology for running sandboxed programs without changing kernel source code.
Istio
A service mesh that adds mTLS, traffic management, and observability to Kubernetes services.
Network Policy
A Kubernetes resource that controls which pods can communicate with each other.
Service Mesh
A dedicated infrastructure layer for managing service-to-service communication in microservices.
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