350-401 Question #317: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

Question

Which tunneling technique is used when designing a Cisco SD-Access fabric data plane?

Options

• ALISP
• BVRF Lite
• CVRF
• DVXLAN

Explanation

VXLAN in Cisco SD-Access Fabric

VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) is the tunneling protocol used for the data plane in Cisco SD-Access because it encapsulates Layer 2 frames within UDP packets, allowing traffic to be transported across the IP underlay network while preserving segmentation and enabling macro/micro-segmentation through scalable group tags (SGTs).

Why the distractors are wrong:

• LISP (A) is used for the control plane in SD-Access (handling endpoint registration and location/identity mapping), not the data plane - this is the most common trap in this question.
• VRF Lite (B) is a traditional WAN segmentation technique used outside of SD-Access fabric design and has no tunneling capability.
• VRF (C) is a logical network segmentation construct used within the SD-Access fabric for virtual networks, but it is not a tunneling protocol.

🧠 Memory Tip: Think "LISP Controls, VXLAN Carries" - LISP handles the control plane (where is the endpoint?), while VXLAN carries the actual data traffic through the fabric tunnel. If the question says data plane, always think VXLAN.

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