Macvlan network driver

Macvlan network is used to connect applications directly to the physical network. By using the macvlan network driver to assign a MAC address to each container, also allow having full TCP/Ip stack. Then, the Docker daemon routes traffic to containers by their MAC addresses. You can isolate your macvlan networks using different physical network interfaces. This is used in legacy applications which require MAC address.

Macvlan networking in Docker is a mode that gives each container its own MAC address, making them appear as separate physical devices on the network. This enables containers to directly communicate with external networks without going through the Docker host’s network stack. Macvlan networking is beneficial for scenarios where containers require direct access to the underlying network infrastructure, such as when running network-intensive applications or services that need to expose specific ports. It provides improved network performance, isolation, and flexibility compared to bridge networking, making it suitable for applications needing container-to-network communication without network address translation (NAT) overhead.

For example some applications, especially legacy applications or applications which monitor network traffic, expect to be directly connected to the physical network. In this type of situation, you can use the macvlan network driver to assign a…