Routing as Policy
In a mesh, where a request goes is a configuration decision, not a code change. The control plane pushes routing rules that the proxies enforce, letting you steer traffic precisely.
What You Can Match On
- Headers: send requests with a beta cookie to a new version.
- Path and method: route reads and writes differently.
- Weight: split ninety percent to v1 and ten percent to v2.
Because matching happens at the proxy, you change behavior instantly without redeploying services.
Subsets and Versions
The mesh groups endpoints into subsets, usually by version label. A routing rule then targets a subset. This is the foundation for canary releases and A B testing.
Why It Is Powerful
Traditional load balancers route at layer four and see only addresses. Mesh proxies route at layer seven and read the full request. That lets you express business intent, like always send premium users to the faster pool, in declarative rules.
Key idea
Mesh routing is declarative layer seven policy that matches on headers, paths, and weights to steer traffic between versions without redeploying.