space.vars.product\_name :
* Physical Networks
* Virtual Networks
Physical networks (also called Provider networks in the API) offer layer-2 connectivity to virtual machines with optional support for DHCP and metadata services.
Physical networks connect, or map, to existing layer-2 networks in the data center, typically using VLAN (802.1q) tagging to identify and separate them. A physical network may be flat (i.e. with no VLAN segmentation), or using certain segments (e.g. VLAN or VXLAN), that provides connectivity to certain external resources outside the hypervisor cluster.
## Types
space.vars.product\_name supports following types of physical networks:
* Flat
* VLAN
* VXLAN
### Flat Network
A flat network is a physical network with no VLAN tags. All VMs created in this network will be in the same broadcast domain. Flat networks do not require a network switch that does VLAN tagging, and are typically created in environments that prefer simple networking and do not require VLAN based isolation.
You can create **at the most one flat network** per physical network interface on your host.
### VLAN Network
VLAN networks are networks that are created using VLAN IDs (802.1Q tagged) that correspond to VLANs present in your physical network. VMs created in this network will have their broadcast domain restricted to be within this VLAN ID. This allows VMs to communicate with each other across the environment. They can also communicate with dedicated servers, firewalls, load balancers, and other networking infrastructure on the same layer 2 VLAN.
Note that if you plan to use VLAN networks for both physical and virtual networking, the VLAN ID range you specify for virtual networks must be different from the VLAN IDs used by your physical network infrastructure.
### VXLAN Network
A VXLAN network is a physical network that uses VXLAN tunneling / overlay technology. When you create this network, you need to specify a segmentation ID (VXLAN ID).
## IP Version Support
You can create a physical (or provider) network with either ipv4 or ipv6 protocol. Choose the right protocol depending on what your underlying physical network infrastructure support.
## External Networks
An External Network is a physical network that is publicly routable / enabled with access to internet. External networks enable:
* Your virtual machines to route packets from the internal network to the internet
* Assignment of Public IPs to your virtual machine to make them publicly addressable from the internet
To create an External Network, select the option called **'Allow use of Public IPs (External Network)'** when creating a new physical network.
External Networks are `shared` by default, and this property can not be edited. This means External Networks are visible and accessible to all tenants. Self-service users from within tenants can create routers that can connect an internal network to an external network.
{% hint style="info" %}
**Important**
External Networks are **shared** by default, and this can not be changed. This means they are visible and accessible to all tenants. Self-service users can create Routers that can connect an Internal Network to an External Network.
{% endhint %}
### Public IPs
Once you designate a network as external network, you can then create one or more subnets for it and specify a range of IP addresses per subnet. This range of IP addresses will then be used to allocate 'Public IPs' (also called floating IPs when using the CLI) for your VMs.
## Sharing
By default, a physical or a virtual network is created in the context of a tenant that will be the default owner of that network. A network can be explicitly marked as `shared`, which will make it accessible to all tenants.
## Subnets
A subnet creates a smaller, more manageable network segment within a single IP network. You can create multiple subnets for a physical network.
### Allocation Pools
Allocation pools are subsets of subnet CIDR and are used to control how IP addresses are assigned from the subnet.
* Addresses not in the allocation pool are not assigned to ports or virtual machines.
* Addresses outside the allocation pool but within the subnet CIDR can be used for static IP address assignment.
## Create a Physical Network
You can create a new physical network by navigating to the space.vars.product\_name UI then choosing 'Physical Networks' from the left side menu and then clicking on "Create Physical Network" button.
Following are the options you will choose while creating a physical network.
| **Property** | **Description** |
| ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Name & Description | Name & description of your physical network |
| Network Label | Select the Physical Network Label that you previously created as part of cluster blueprint configuration during PCD setup. Refer to [Host Network Configuration](https://docs.platform9.com/private-cloud-director/2025.10/virtualized-clusters/virtualized-cluster-blueprint#host-network-configuration) to better understand how Physical Network Labels work. |
| Allow use of Public IPs (External Network) | Check this box to make this an External Network. Read above for more info on External Networks |
| Network Type | Select the type of network you are creating. Read above for the different types of network types supported. |
| Admin State | This property allows network administrators to define if the network should be used for VM provisioning. If set to `Down`, VMs can not be provisioned on this network. Only VMs with admin state `Up` can be used to provision VMs. Useful when you want to create a Network but not make it available for use immediately. |
| MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) | Filter the network list result by the maximum transmission unit (MTU) value to address fragmentation. Minimum value is `68` for IPv4, and `1280` for IPv6. |
| Make Shared | If checked, this network will be accessible to all tenants in this domain. |
| Create Subnet | Allows you to create a new subnet as part of network creation. |
## Create a Subnet
Following are the parameters you can choose when creating a new subnet:
| **Property** | **Description** |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Name | Name of your subnet |
| IP version | You can create an Ipv4 or an Ipv6 subnet depending on your setup |
| Network Address (CIDR) | Specify the network address CIDR to be used for this subnet eg 192.168.1.0/24. This will determine the IP address range to be used by this subnet. |
| Gateway IP | Specify the IP address to be used for the network gateway. If left blank, the first IP address available from the CIDR will be used as Gateway IP.
Note that creation of a subnet does not automatically create a Gateway. you need to explicitly create a router to enable routing of traffic between this subnet and others.