Layer7

Executive Summary Layer 7 (Application Layer) Load Balancing routes traffic based on HTTP/HTTPS semantics: hostnames, paths, headers, cookies, and body content. Unlike Layer 4, L7 LBs inspect and understand application protocols. When to use L7: HTTP/HTTPS workloads (99% of web apps) Host-based or path-based routing (SaaS multi-tenant) Advanced features: canary deployments, content-based routing API gateways with authentication/authorization WebSockets, gRPC, Server-Sent Events (SSE) When NOT to use L7: Non-HTTP protocols (use L4) Ultra-low latency (<5ms) with extreme throughput (use L4) Binary protocols (databases, Kafka) Fundamentals L7 vs L4: What L7 Adds Feature L4 L7 Visibility IP/port/protocol Full HTTP request/response Routing based on Destination IP, port Host, path, headers, cookies, body Request modification None Rewrite, redirect, compress TLS Passthrough only Terminate + re-encrypt Session affinity IP hash (crude) Sticky cookies, affinity headers Compression No Gzip/Brotli inline WebSockets Requires passthrough Native support gRPC Via TLS passthrough Native with trailers, keep-alives Rate limiting App-level only LB-level per path/host Auth App-level only OIDC, JWT, basic @ edge Throughput Millions RPS Thousands-millions RPS Latency <1ms 1-10ms Core L7 Concepts Listeners: HTTP port 80, HTTPS port 443 (often combined as single listener with TLS upgrade) …