sigs.k8s.io/gateway-api@v1.0.0/site-src/concepts/glossary.md (about)

     1  # Gateway API Glossary
     2  
     3  ### Consumer Route
     4  
     5  A Route bound to a workload's Service by a consumer of a given workload,
     6  refining the specific consumer's use of the workload.
     7  
     8  ### Gateway Controller
     9  
    10  A _gateway controller_ is software that manages the infrastructure associated
    11  with routing traffic across contexts using the Gateway API, analogous to the
    12  earlier _ingress controller_ concept. Gateway controllers often, but not
    13  always, run in the cluster where they're managing infrastructure.
    14  
    15  ### East/West traffic
    16  
    17  Traffic from workload to workload within a cluster.
    18  
    19  ### Endpoint routing
    20  
    21  _Endpoint routing_ is sending requests to a specific Service directly to one
    22  of the endpoints of the Service backend, bypassing routing decisions which
    23  might be made by the underlying network infrastructure. This is commonly
    24  necessary for advanced routing cases like sticky sessions, where the gateway
    25  will need to guarantee that every request for a specific session goes to the
    26  same endpoint.
    27  
    28  ### North/South traffic
    29  
    30  Traffic from outside a cluster to inside a cluster (and vice versa).
    31  
    32  ### Producer Route
    33  
    34  A Route bound to a workload's Service by the creator of a given workload,
    35  defining what is acceptable use of the workload. Producer routes must always
    36  be in the same Namespace as their workload's Service.
    37  
    38  ### Service backend
    39  
    40  The part of a Kubernetes Service resource that is a set of endpoints
    41  associated with Pods and their IPs. Some east/west traffic happens by having
    42  workloads direct requests to specific endpoints within a Service backend.
    43  
    44  ### Service frontend
    45  
    46  The part of a Kubernetes Service resource that allocates a DNS record and a
    47  cluster IP. East/west traffic often - but not always - works by having
    48  workloads direct requests to a Service frontend.
    49  
    50  ### Service mesh
    51  
    52  A _service mesh_ is software that manages infrastructure providing security,
    53  reliability, and observability for communications between workloads (east/west
    54  traffic). Service meshes generally work by intercepting communications between
    55  workloads at a very low level, often (though not always) by inserting proxies
    56  next to the workload's Pods.
    57  
    58  ### Service routing
    59  
    60  _Service routing_ is sending requests to a specific Service to the service
    61  frontend, allowing the underlying network infrastructure (usually `kube-proxy`
    62  or a [service mesh](#service-mesh)) to choose the specific endpoint to which
    63  the request is routed.
    64  
    65  ### Workload
    66  
    67  An instance of computation that provides a function within a cluster,
    68  comprising the Pods providing the compute, and the
    69  Deployment/Job/ReplicaSet/etc which owns those Pods.