Understanding Docker Macvlan network

Question

Trying to understand the advantage and use case of Docker Macvlan network driver.

Can someone explain in detail if possible with some examples about what the following statement mean, referred from docs.

The Linux implementations are extremely lightweight because rather than using the traditional Linux bridge for isolation, they are simply associated to a Linux Ethernet interface or sub-interface to enforce separation between networks and connectivity to the physical network.

I have some basic understanding on the default networking provided by Docker, answered here.

Answer 1

Macvlan network driver is used for cases where we need containers to be part of the local network of the host directly. This approach can allow containers to use the same dhcp server as what the host would use, this would mean same ip address pool as host. Typical bridge network has more overhead because NAT and vxlan adds overhead in the communication. Macvlan has very less overhead since its directly connected to underlay network.

For more details, pls refer to my blogs(https://sreeninet.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/macvlan-and-ipvlan/, https://sreeninet.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/docker-macvlan-and-ipvlan-network-plugins/)