Generic Routing Encapsulation - IP Protocol
This page provides IP protocol information on the Generic Routing Encapsulation IP protocol (GRE) detected by the Netify DPI engine. Please see the IP protocol catalog for information on other IP protocols.
GRE is Generic Routing Encapsulation, a simple, protocol-agnostic tunneling mechanism used to encapsulate a wide variety of network-layer packets inside IP. Linux has a native handler for this IP protocol.
IP Protocol Details
- Name
- Generic Routing Encapsulation
- Abbreviation
- GRE
- Status
- Active
- IANA Number
- 47
- IANA Keyword
- GRE
- Reference
- Generic Routing Encapsulation
IP Protocol Status - Active
GRE was standardized in RFC 2784 (2000), building on earlier 1994 work, and is widely and actively used today in VPNs and routing infrastructure.
IP Protocol Network Policy
GRE is used to build GRE tunnels for VPNs, site-to-site routing, and carrying non-IP or multicast traffic across IP networks; allow only on tunnel endpoints.