This whitepaper is for historical reference only. Some content might be outdated and some links might not be available.

# Virtual interfaces (VIF)
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 With these connections, you can create *virtual interfaces* directly to public AWS services (for example, to [Amazon Simple Storage Service](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/) (Amazon S3) or Amazon Connect) or to Amazon VPC, bypassing internet service providers in your network path. An AWS Direct Connect point-of-presence (AWS DX POP), carrier interconnection, and data center interconnection provides access to AWS in the Region with which it is associated. You can use a single connection in an AWS Region or [AWS GovCloud](https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/) (US) to access public AWS services in all other Regions. 

 Create a virtual interface to enable access to AWS services. A public virtual interface (public VIF) enables access to public services such as Amazon S3 or Amazon Connect. A private virtual interface (private VIF) enables access to your VPC and hosted workloads. A transit virtual interface (transit VIF) is used to access one or more Amazon Transit Gateways associated with Direct Connect gateways. 

![\[Reference diagram of VIF propagation over BGP.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/aws-direct-connect-for-amazon-connect/images/vif-propogation.png)