F5 NGINX Gateway Fabric

Built for AI-ready Kubernetes connectivity

Model-aware routing for AI workloads

AI inference workloads are unpredictable—prompts vary in size and compute intensity, making traditional routing inefficient. Static load balancing can overload backends or underutilize resources. NGINX Gateway Fabric enables model-aware routing, directing traffic based on model type, cost/performance profiles, and runtime signals for efficient, scalable AI delivery.

Route by model and workload type: Direct requests based on model type, version, or other parameters, ensuring optimal backend selection and efficient utilization of resources.
Handle variable AI workloads: Adapt dynamically to fluctuating prompt sizes and compute demands, avoiding overload while maintaining consistent performance.
Improve performance and efficiency: Optimize latency and throughput by routing requests to the most suitable backends based on real-time metrics such as cache and queue depth.

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Expressive traffic control

Traditional ingress relies heavily on annotations, leading to fragmented and hard-to-manage configurations. NGINX Gateway Fabric introduces expressive, Kubernetes-native CRDs that enable consistent, reusable, and declarative traffic policies across teams and environments.

CRDs over annotations: Replace scattered annotations with structured, Kubernetes-native APIs that improve readability, consistency, and long-term maintainability.
Reusable traffic policies: Define routing and traffic policies once and reuse them across environments, reducing duplication and configuration drift.
Declarative configuration model: Manage traffic using version-controlled, declarative resources that align with Kubernetes best practices.

Role-based control for platform teams

As teams scale, managing shared infrastructure becomes complex and error prone. NGINX Gateway Fabric introduces role-oriented resources that separate platform and application concerns, enabling safe delegation while maintaining centralized governance and control.

Clear separation of roles: Allow platform teams to define infrastructure and policies while developers control application-specific routing safely.
Safe self-service enablement: Enable teams to deploy and manage services independently within guardrails, reducing bottlenecks and risk.
Consistent governance at scale: Apply centralized policies across clusters and teams while maintaining flexibility for individual applications.

Vignette - Gain seamless platform integration

Evolve beyond ingress without disruption

NGINX Gateway Fabric provides a forward-looking model for traffic management, enabling teams to modernize Kubernetes connectivity while building on existing ingress patterns and operational familiarity.

Next-generation ingress model: Adopt a more flexible and extensible approach to traffic management designed for modern applications and evolving workloads.
Built for modern workloads: Support apps, APIs, and AI use cases with advanced routing, policy control, and scalability.
Flexible adoption: Run Ingress and Gateway API side by side—use Gateway API for new apps while maintaining existing Ingress workflows without disruption.

Product overview

Efficient Kubernetes governance

NGINX Gateway Fabric delivers applications in Kubernetes using the Gateway API to manage traffic at scale. It enables platform teams to control access while application teams define routing, ensuring secure and consistent delivery to in-cluster services.

NGINX Gateway Fabric product documentation

Core Capabilities

NGINX Gateway Fabric delivers Gateway API with advanced routing, policy control, and model-aware traffic management, enhanced by NGINX Plus features for observability, security, and reliability.