BFE logo

BFE

BFE (Beyond Front End) is an open-source layer 7 load balancer developed by Baidu, providing advanced traffic routing, forwarding, and load balancing capabilities with support for HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, WebSocket, TLS, and gRPC. BFE is a CNCF sandbox project licensed under Apache 2.0.

1 APIs 8 Features
Load BalancerNetworkingOpen SourceTraffic ManagementCNCFBaidu

APIs

BFE Management API

The BFE Management API provides internal monitoring metrics, configuration reload, and Go pprof profiling endpoints. This API should only be exposed on internal networks.

Features

Layer 7 Load Balancing

Advanced HTTP/HTTPS/HTTP2 load balancing with pluggable algorithms.

Plugin Framework

Extensible plugin system enabling custom traffic management logic.

Multi-tenancy

Isolated configuration and routing per tenant.

Advanced Routing

DSL-based routing rules for fine-grained traffic control.

Protocol Support

HTTP, HTTPS, SPDY, HTTP/2, gRPC, WebSocket, TLS, FastCGI protocols.

Observability

Built-in metrics, logging, and distributed tracing integration.

Dynamic Configuration

Hot reload of routing and load balancing configuration without restart.

CNCF Sandbox

Hosted as a CNCF sandbox project with active community governance.

Use Cases

Enterprise API Gateway

Route and load balance API traffic with per-tenant isolation.

Microservices Traffic Management

Manage east-west and north-south traffic in microservices architectures.

TLS Termination

Terminate TLS/HTTPS at the edge and forward to backend HTTP services.

A/B Testing

Route fractions of traffic to canary deployments using routing rules.

DDoS Mitigation

Use traffic management plugins to detect and mitigate DDoS attacks.

Integrations

Prometheus

Export metrics to Prometheus for monitoring and alerting.

Kubernetes

Deploy BFE as an ingress controller in Kubernetes clusters.

Docker

Run BFE in Docker containers for containerized deployments.

Grafana

Visualize BFE metrics in Grafana dashboards.

Semantic Vocabularies

Bfe Context

5 classes · 7 properties

JSON-LD

API Governance Rules

BFE API Rules

22 rules · 13 errors 8 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

Resources

🌐
Portal
Portal
🔗
Documentation
Documentation
👥
GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
👥
GitHubRepository
GitHubRepository
🔗
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
🔗
SpectralRules
SpectralRules

Sources

Raw ↑
aid: bfe
name: BFE
description: BFE (Beyond Front End) is an open-source layer 7 load balancer developed by Baidu, providing advanced traffic
  routing, forwarding, and load balancing capabilities with support for HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, WebSocket, TLS, and gRPC. BFE
  is a CNCF sandbox project licensed under Apache 2.0.
type: Index
image: https://kinlane-productions.s3.amazonaws.com/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Load Balancer
- Networking
- Open Source
- Traffic Management
- CNCF
- Baidu
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bfe/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: bfe:bfe-management-api
  name: BFE Management API
  description: The BFE Management API provides internal monitoring metrics, configuration reload, and Go pprof profiling endpoints.
    This API should only be exposed on internal networks.
  humanURL: https://www.bfe-networks.net/en_us/operation/api/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8421
  tags:
  - Management
  - Monitoring
  - Configuration
  - Observability
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.bfe-networks.net/en_us/operation/api/
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bfe/refs/heads/main/openapi/bfe-management-api.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/management-debug.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/management-monitor.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/management-reload.yaml
common:
- type: Portal
  url: https://www.bfe-networks.net/en_us/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.bfe-networks.net/en_us/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/bfenetworks
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/bfenetworks/bfe
- type: Vocabulary
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bfe/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/bfe-vocabulary.yaml
- type: SpectralRules
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bfe/refs/heads/main/rules/bfe-spectral-rules.yml
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: Layer 7 Load Balancing
    description: Advanced HTTP/HTTPS/HTTP2 load balancing with pluggable algorithms.
  - name: Plugin Framework
    description: Extensible plugin system enabling custom traffic management logic.
  - name: Multi-tenancy
    description: Isolated configuration and routing per tenant.
  - name: Advanced Routing
    description: DSL-based routing rules for fine-grained traffic control.
  - name: Protocol Support
    description: HTTP, HTTPS, SPDY, HTTP/2, gRPC, WebSocket, TLS, FastCGI protocols.
  - name: Observability
    description: Built-in metrics, logging, and distributed tracing integration.
  - name: Dynamic Configuration
    description: Hot reload of routing and load balancing configuration without restart.
  - name: CNCF Sandbox
    description: Hosted as a CNCF sandbox project with active community governance.
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Enterprise API Gateway
    description: Route and load balance API traffic with per-tenant isolation.
  - name: Microservices Traffic Management
    description: Manage east-west and north-south traffic in microservices architectures.
  - name: TLS Termination
    description: Terminate TLS/HTTPS at the edge and forward to backend HTTP services.
  - name: A/B Testing
    description: Route fractions of traffic to canary deployments using routing rules.
  - name: DDoS Mitigation
    description: Use traffic management plugins to detect and mitigate DDoS attacks.
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: Prometheus
    description: Export metrics to Prometheus for monitoring and alerting.
  - name: Kubernetes
    description: Deploy BFE as an ingress controller in Kubernetes clusters.
  - name: Docker
    description: Run BFE in Docker containers for containerized deployments.
  - name: Grafana
    description: Visualize BFE metrics in Grafana dashboards.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: [email protected]