API Gateway Orchestration for Multi-Vendor Microservice Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems lack a common functional and solution architecture for multiple vendor API gateways, leading to the need for multiple support groups and inefficient routing and configuration of API requests.
Innovation Solution
An API gateway orchestrator provides a common management layer that normalizes and abstracts clients from vendor-specific APIs, enabling unified configuration, security, performance management, and fault management across multiple API gateways.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple vendor API gateways are used, then service provider can integrate multiple vendor solutions, but system complexity increases and requires multiple support groups
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an API gateway orchestrator as an intermediary layer between clients and multiple vendor-specific API gateways. The orchestrator receives API requests through a unified interface, determines routing based on service identifiers, and forwards requests to the appropriate vendor gateway. This mediator approach allows multi-vendor integration while abstracting the complexity from the client side, resolving the contradiction between versatility and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the API gateway functionality into two distinct layers: the orchestrator layer that handles unified request management, routing decisions, and vendor abstraction, and the vendor-specific gateway layer that handles vendor-protocol-specific operations. This segmentation allows each layer to specialize in its function, enabling multi-vendor support while keeping the client-facing interface simple and unified.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple vendor API gateways are used, then service provider can choose from multiple vendors, but configuration and routing becomes inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The orchestrator pre-establishes routing rules and service mappings between service identifiers and vendor gateway endpoints. When an API request arrives, the orchestrator quickly matches the service identifier against pre-configured routing tables to determine the appropriate vendor gateway, rather than performing complex real-time analysis. This preliminary configuration approach maintains vendor selection flexibility while significantly improving routing efficiency.
3Reliability
If multiple support groups are maintained for different API gateways, then each vendor can be supported specially, but operational efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The orchestrator provides a universal, vendor-agnostic interface that handles common API request patterns, authentication, and routing logic in a unified manner. This universal layer eliminates the need for multiple specialized support groups, as a single support team can manage the orchestrator's unified interface and routing logic, while still maintaining the ability to support multiple vendors through the backend gateway connections.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes systems, methods, and devices related to using an application programming interface (API) gateway orchestration layer. A method may include identifying, by the API gateway orchestration layer, a first API request, received by an API gateway API, to access a first microservice of a first API gateway that uses a first API gateway model; identifying a second API request, received by the API gateway API, to access a second microservice of a second API gateway that uses a second API gateway model; determining, based on the first API request, a first route to the first API gateway; determining, based on the second API request, a second route to the second API gateway; routing the first API request to the first microservice based on the first route; and routing the second API request to the second microservice based on the second route.