Rate limiting

Rate Limiting

Rate limiting is a technique used to control the rate of incoming and outgoing requests in a network or system. It is commonly employed in hardware appliances, protocol servers, and data centers to prevent abuse, protect against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and ensure fair resource allocation. Hardware appliances can limit the rate of requests at the network layer, potentially blocking networks with Network Address Translation (NAT) masking multiple users under a single IP. Protocol servers utilize in-memory databases and rate limiting algorithms to manage user sessions and respond with status code 429 (Too Many Requests) if limits are exceeded. Data centers implement rate limiting to enforce service level agreements and may use various techniques at the software and hardware levels, including virtualized environments.

Various tools and mechanisms are available for implementing rate limiting, such as Shield and rate limiting libraries in different programming languages. Common practices include using ASP.NET Web API and Core rate limiting middleware, as well as exploring different types of rate limiting counters and windows. Research and resources on network security, DoS protection, and data center traffic control provide insights into mitigating HTTP flooding attacks and optimizing network performance. Additionally, there are discussions on alternative approaches to rate limiting in cloud-native applications, emphasizing the balance between precision and resource allocation for effective rate limiting strategies.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throttling_process_(computing)