Source: https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2018/06/all-about-autovpn/:
The punch process
The punch process is actually the “client” in a client-server relationship, with the server portion being the “Cisco Meraki VPN Registry.” The VPN Registry is a service independent of the Meraki dashboard, used to register each MX’s public and interface IP addresses. The Registry then uses some simple logic to understand how to route between the various MXs in an organization (in order to create VPN tunnels). Namely:
- Check for match – If the MX’s public IP and the interface IP match, then the MX in question is directly connected to the internet on that WAN interface
- No Match – MX WAN circuits with different public IP addresses should route between those public IP addresses directly
- Route Initiated – If the two MX’s public IP addresses match, then the MXs in question are in the same private network. As such, they should route to one another via their interface IP addresses
The VPN registry then passes this information to the dashboard.