API Gateway Load Distribution

Learn how to distribute traffic across multiple backend services for optimal performance and reliability.

Round Robin
Weighted

Distribution Strategies

Choose the right load distribution strategy based on your backend capabilities and traffic patterns.

Round Robin

Sequentially cycles through available servers. Simple and effective for homogeneous backends.

Weighted Distribution

Route more traffic to powerful instances, less to smaller ones. Perfect for heterogeneous infrastructure.

# Nginx upstream config upstream backend { server srv1.example.com weight=3; server srv2.example.com weight=2; server srv3.example.com weight=1; }

Gateway Configuration

Configure load distribution in your API gateway for intelligent traffic management.

// Load balancer config const lb = { strategy: 'weighted-round-robin', targets: [ { url: 'https://srv1:443', weight: 3 }, { url: 'https://srv2:443', weight: 2 }, { url: 'https://srv3:443', weight: 1 } ], healthCheck: { interval: '10s', unhealthyThreshold: 3 } };

Least Connections

Route to server with fewest active connections. Ideal for varying request durations.

IP Hash

Consistent hashing based on client IP. Ensures same user hits same backend.

Adaptive

Real-time adjustment based on server health, latency, and current load.

99.99%
Uptime
50%
Faster
3x
Capacity

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the best load balancing strategy?
Depends on your setup. Round robin works for equal servers, weighted for different capacities, least connections for varying workloads.
How does health checking work?
Gateway periodically pings backends and removes unhealthy servers from rotation until they recover.
Can I use multiple strategies?
Yes! Configure different strategies for different routes or implement a hybrid approach.

Partner Resources

Model Routing

LLM routing

Traffic Mgmt

Flow control

Round Robin

OpenAI specific

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