Managing traffic efficiently is the most important aspect of building scalable applications. While traditionally, the ingress is used to handle external traffic, the gateway API is the next-generation solution.
What is the Gateway API?
Because Kubernetes needs:
Multi-protocol support (not just HTTP)
Real-world routing capabilities (host/path/headers/weights)
Clear separation between infra and app teams
Built-in extensibility (no more hacky annotations)
Gateway API solves all of these.
Benefits of the Gateway API :
Supports HTTP, TCP, TLS, and gRPC natively
Modular resources (Gateway, Routes) - clean separation of concerns
Better CRD model - more flexible than ingress rules
Extensible & future-ready
Role-based config ownership (infra team defines gateway, app team defines routes)
Why GatewayAPI over Ingress?
Limited Protocol Support - Ingress primarily handles HTTP/S. You need annotations or custom solutions for gRPC, WebSockets, or TCP/UDP (e.g., NGINX config hacks).
Complex Configuration for Advanced Features - Setting up rate limiting, authentication, or canary deployments requires manual annotations or third-party tools.
Scalability Issues - A single Ingress controller becomes a bottleneck for high-traffic apps.
No Built-in Security - SSL termination, JWT validation, or OAuth must be configured manually (e.g., cert-manager for TLS).
Installation and Setup of Gateway API :
Step 1: Install the Gateway Controller.
To start using the Gateway API in your Kubernetes cluster, you need to install a Gateway Controller. You can use any supported controller like Istio, NGINX, Envoy, Traefik, etc.
Example: Install the Gateway API using the Envoy Gateway
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/latest/download/standard-install.yaml
This installs the NGINX Gateway controller with Gateway API CRDs and sets your cluster ready for routing traffic using the Gateway API.
Step 2: Define the Gateway. Create a gateway.yaml to define listener ports, TLS, etc.
Step 3: Create HTTPRoute
Real-World Traffic Flow
A user hits: https://api.company.com/users/profile
Gateway handles TLS termination
HTTPRoute sends /users/* to user-service:8080
All this, without custom annotations.
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Conclusion
The Kubernetes Gateway API represents a significant step forward in managing ingress traffic within clusters. By offering enhanced observability, scalability, and a future-ready architecture, it addresses many limitations of the traditional Ingress approach. The Gateway API not only streamlines traffic management but also aligns your infrastructure with the evolving standards of the Kubernetes community.
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