Layer 4 Load Balancer

advanced
networking
Enhanced Content

Definition

Load balancer that works at the transport layer, routing traffic based only on IP address and port number without looking at the content. Like a mail sorter who only reads the address on the envelope, not what's inside.

Real-World Example

A Layer 4 load balancer routes all traffic on port 443 to backend servers based on IP, handling millions of connections per second with very low latency.

Cloud Provider Equivalencies

All four provide Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) load balancing that routes based on IP/port and connection state, prioritizing high throughput and low latency. Feature sets differ (e.g., TLS termination, logging, global vs regional options), but the core L4 behavior is comparable.

AWS
Network Load Balancer (NLB)
AZ
Azure Load Balancer (Standard)
GCP
Cloud Load Balancing (TCP/UDP Network Load Balancer)
OCI
OCI Network Load Balancer

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