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Networking Intermediate

What is Load Balancer?

A device or software that distributes network traffic across multiple servers to ensure reliability and performance.

Load balancers distribute incoming requests across a pool of backend servers. This prevents any single server from becoming overwhelmed, improves response times, and provides redundancy.

Algorithms include round-robin, least connections, weighted, and IP hash. Popular solutions include Nginx, HAProxy, AWS ELB, and F5. Load balancers operate at Layer 4 (transport) or Layer 7 (application).

Related Terms

WireGuard
A modern, lightweight VPN protocol that uses state-of-the-art cryptography and minimal code for fast, secure tunneling.
NAT (Network Address Translation)
A method of mapping private IP addresses to public IP addresses, allowing multiple devices to share a single public IP.
VLAN (Virtual LAN)
A logical grouping of network devices that creates separate broadcast domains on the same physical network infrastructure.
TCP vs UDP
Two transport layer protocols: TCP provides reliable, ordered delivery while UDP provides fast, connectionless delivery without guarantees.
ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol)
A network protocol used for diagnostic and error reporting, including ping and traceroute functionality.
Overlay Network
A virtual network built on top of an existing physical network, enabling features like container networking and VPNs.
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