The main purpose of a virtual network is to enable a data center or service provider network to provide the most suitable and efficient networking structure for its hosts' applications. The ability to virtualize workloads and transport them across network infrastructure with minimal service degradation gave rise to the first cloud architectures. As designed below, a virtual LAN, a network switch may be subdivided into a set of virtual port addresses - a device may be subdivided into a set of MAC addresses, or a subnet may be subdivided into separate domains of local IP addresses and associated ports. The diagram below is shown as bridging a span between two physical sets of addresses.
