1. Kubernetes CNI / Network Plugins

2. Cloud-native Kubernetes networking

AWS / EKS

Typical EKS stack:

Internet
   │
Route 53
   │
AWS WAF
   │
ALB / NLB
   │
AWS Load Balancer Controller
   │
Kubernetes Service
   │
kube-proxy / eBPF
   │
CNI
   │
AWS VPC CNI / Cilium
   │
Pod

3. Azure / AKS

Typical:

Internet
   │
Azure Front Door / WAF
   │
Application Gateway
   │
AKS Service
   │
Cilium / kube-proxy
   │
Azure CNI
   │
Pod

4. GCP / GKE

GKE’s Dataplane V2 is based on eBPF/Cilium technology, making it particularly interesting if you’re learning modern Kubernetes networking.

5. OpenShift / Red Hat

For OpenShift, the networking landscape is slightly different.

Typical OpenShift:

                    Internet
                       │
                  Load Balancer
                       │
                OpenShift Router
                       │
              ┌────────┴────────┐
              │                 │
          Service           Service
              │                 │
              └────────┬────────┘
                       │
                 OVN-Kubernetes
                       │
                  Pod Network

6. Networking by OSI / Kubernetes layer

This is probably the most useful way to categorize them for DevOps/SRE learning.

Layer 1 — Physical / NIC

NIC
 │
 ├── Ethernet
 ├── SR-IOV
 └── DPDK

Relevant Kubernetes technologies:

• SR-IOV CNI
• DPDK
• Multus

Layer 2 — Data Link

Ethernet
   │
Linux Bridge
   │
OVS

Technologies:

• Open vSwitch
• Linux Bridge
• OVN
• VLAN
• VXLAN

Layer 3 — Pod networking

This is where the CNI operates.

Pod
 │
CNI
 │
 ├── Calico
 ├── Cilium
 ├── Flannel
 ├── Antrea
 ├── OVN-Kubernetes
 ├── AWS VPC CNI
 └── Azure CNI

Layer 3/4 — Routing

Technologies:

• Linux routing
• BGP
• IP-in-IP
• VXLAN
• Geneve
• eBPF
• kube-proxy
• IPVS
• nftables

Examples:

Calico → BGP / VXLAN / IPIP
Cilium → eBPF
OVN → Geneve / OVN
Flannel → VXLAN

Layer 4 — Service networking

Pod
 │
Service
 │
 ├── ClusterIP
 ├── NodePort
 └── LoadBalancer

Technologies:

• kube-proxy
• iptables
• IPVS
• nftables
• Cilium eBPF

Layer 7 — Ingress / Gateway

Internet
    │
    ▼
Ingress / Gateway
    │
    ▼
Service
    │
    ▼
Pod

Popular implementations:

• NGINX Ingress
• HAProxy
• Traefik
• Kong
• Envoy Gateway
• Istio Gateway
• AWS Load Balancer Controller
• GKE Gateway Controller
• Azure Application Gateway

7. Service Mesh layer

Above the basic Kubernetes networking layer:

Architecture:

                 ┌──────────────────┐
                 │   Service Mesh   │
                 │ Istio / Linkerd  │
                 └────────┬─────────┘
                          │
                 ┌────────▼─────────┐
                 │ Ingress/Gateway  │
                 │ NGINX / Envoy    │
                 └────────┬─────────┘
                          │
                 ┌────────▼─────────┐
                 │ Kubernetes       │
                 │ Service          │
                 └────────┬─────────┘
                          │
                 ┌────────▼─────────┐
                 │ CNI              │
                 │ Cilium/Calico    │
                 └────────┬─────────┘
                          │
                 ┌────────▼─────────┐
                 │ Node / VPC       │
                 └──────────────────┘

The shortlist I’d learn

For a modern Kubernetes networking roadmap, I’d prioritize:

1. Cilium → modern eBPF networking
2. Calico → networking + NetworkPolicy + BGP
3. AWS VPC CNI → essential for EKS
4. Azure CNI → essential for AKS
5. GKE Dataplane V2 → essential for modern GKE
6. OVN-Kubernetes → essential for OpenShift
7. Multus → multiple interfaces/networks
8. SR-IOV CNI → high-performance networking
9. NGINX/Envoy Gateway → L7 networking
10. Istio → service-mesh networking

For your AWS/EKS + OpenShift + Kubernetes work, the particularly important combination is:

                    Kubernetes Networking
                           │
        ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐
        │                  │                  │
       CNI              Service             L7
        │               Network             Network
        │                  │                  │
 ┌──────┼──────┐      kube-proxy       Ingress/Gateway
 │      │      │      / eBPF            │
Cilium Calico AWS      │          NGINX / Envoy
 │      │      VPC CNI │
 │      │              │
 └──────┴──────────────┘
             │
        Cloud Network
             │
     ┌───────┼────────┐
     │       │        │
    AWS    Azure     GCP
     │       │        │
    VPC     VNet      VPC

This gives you a cloud → VPC/VNet → node → CNI → pod → service → ingress → service mesh view, which is the cleanest way to understand Kubernetes networking end-to-end.

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.