API Throttling
Explore how to use API throttling in AWS API Gateway to prevent system overload and protect against DDoS attacks. Understand the token bucket algorithm, request rate, and burst limits to efficiently manage API traffic and ensure system stability.
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Why throttle?
Anything in excess is wrong. More so when using AWS resources. We all want more users to utilize our application, but when the traffic bursts beyond limits, it could overburden the system. The traffic surge could also be caused by a hacker, not actual good traffic.
The world is full of hackers. Unfortunately, as our products gain popularity, the more likely they are to be targeted. When hackers try to attack the application by simultaneously making too many API calls, it shows up as a DDoS attack on the API Gateway. AWS has several services dedicated to security against such attacks. The AWS Shield is the most popular for guarding against DDoS attacks.
The simplest way to hold back such attacks is through throttling. We can ...