Gateway API

Cilium’s Gateway API implementation isn’t just a replacement; it’s an upgrade that brings a host of benefits, from enhanced traffic control to streamlined operations. Advanced traffic management: Native support for header-based routing, traffic splitting, and cross-namespace routes. Unified traffic management (GAMMA): Leverage a single, consistent API (Gateway API) to manage both external (north-south) ingress traffic and internal (east-west) service mesh traffic, simplifying operations and policy enforcement. Role separation: Decouple infrastructure from application routing for better secur

In a Kubernetes context, an AI Gateway refers to network gateway infrastructure (including proxy servers, load-balancers, etc.) that generally implements the Gateway API specification with enhanced capabilities for AI workloads. Rather than defining a distinct product category, AI Gateways describe infrastructure designed to enforce policy on AI traffic, including: Token-based rate limiting for AI APIs.Fine-grained access controls for inference APIs.Payload inspection enabling intelligent routing, caching, and guardrails.Support for AI-specific protocols and routing patterns.

With ingress-nginx entering retirement, platform teams face a choice: keep a critical control-plane component without upstream maintenance, or move to an actively supported alternative. The Kubernetes community has aligned on the Gateway API as the long-term standard for traffic management. That direction shapes your two primary migration paths: Move to another ingress controller (such as Cilium Ingress, Traefik, or HAProxy Ingress). Adopt the Kubernetes Gateway API, the next-generation standard for ingress and traffic management, using a controller like Cilium Gateway API. Cilium offers both

While Ingress has served us well, its design inherently limits advanced traffic management. The Gateway API, especially with Cilium’s implementation, unlocks a new level of control and flexibility. This table highlights some key areas where Gateway API goes beyond what traditional Ingress can offer, providing more robust and granular control over your traffic flows.