Bridge Network Driver
The bridge networking driver is the first driver on our list. It’s simple to understand, simple to use, and simple to troubleshoot, which makes it a good networking choice for developers and those new to Docker. The bridge driver creates a private network internal to the host so containers on this network can communicate. External access is granted by exposing ports to containers. Docker secures the network by managing rules that block connectivity between different Docker networks.
Overlay Network Driver
The built-in Docker overlay network driver radically simplifies many of the complexities in multi-host networking. It is a swarm scope driver, which means that it operates across an entire Swarm or UCP cluster rather than individual hosts. With the overlay driver, multi-host networks are first-class citizens inside Docker without external provisioning or components. IPAM, service discovery, multi-host connectivity, encryption, and load balancing are built right in. For control, the overlay driver uses the encrypted Swarm control plane to manage large scale clusters at low convergence times.
MACVLAN Driver
The macvlan driver is the newest built-in network driver and offers several unique characteristics. It’s a very lightweight driver, because rather than using any Linux bridging or port mapping, it connects container interfaces directly to host interfaces. Containers are addressed with routable IP addresses that are on the subnet of the external network.
As a result of routable IP addresses, containers communicate directly with resources that exist outside a Swarm cluster without the use of NAT and port mapping. This can aid in network visibility and troubleshooting. Additionally, the direct traffic path between containers and the host interface helps reduce latency. macvlan is a local scope network driver which is configured per-host. As a result, there are stricter dependencies between MACVLAN and external networks, which is both a constraint and an advantage that is different from overlay or bridge.
