Abstract

As Kubernetes applications support increasingly critical workloads, organizations need gateway infrastructure that can deliver high throughput, responsive performance, and efficient resource utilization as demand increases. F5 NGINX Gateway Fabric is part of F5's Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), which brings together application delivery, web application and API protection (WAAP), and AI security for hybrid multicloud environments.

F5 commissioned Tolly to compare F5 NGINX Gateway Fabric, F5's Kubernetes Gateway API implementation, with Envoy Gateway, Traefik (Kubernetes Gateway API), and Cilium Gateway  API. Testing measured HTTP request throughput, latency, TLS connection performance, memory consumption, and request failures across multiple payload sizes and load levels using TLS without PQC. Additional testing evaluated the performance impact of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) on F5 NGINX Gateway Fabric and Traefik.

Tests showed that F5 NGINX Gateway Fabric recorded the highest observed HTTP request rates among the four tested gateways at the 100KB and 1MB payload sizes. Results varied by payload size and included HTTP request failures at some load levels. Additional testing evaluated latency under load, memory efficiency, performance under stress, and post-quantum cryptography (PQC).