Policy Based Routing vs Traffic Shaping

Developers should learn PBR when designing or managing complex network infrastructures that require granular control over traffic routing, such as in multi-homed networks, load balancing scenarios, or compliance with regulatory requirements meets pick tc/htb when you own the linux box doing the routing — a home gateway, a hypervisor host metering tenant vms, an isp edge box — and need free, kernel-level, per-class bandwidth control with borrowing. Here's our take.

Policy Based Routing

Nice Pick

Developers should learn PBR when designing or managing complex network infrastructures that require granular control over traffic routing, such as in multi-homed networks, load balancing scenarios, or compliance with regulatory requirements

Pros

• It is particularly useful for directing specific types of traffic (e
• Related to: routing-protocols, network-security

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Traffic Shaping

Pick tc/HTB when you own the Linux box doing the routing — a home gateway, a hypervisor host metering tenant VMs, an ISP edge box — and need free, kernel-level, per-class bandwidth control with borrowing

Pros

• Do NOT reach for HTB to rate-limit an HTTP API; that's an L2/L3 packet queue, not a request counter
• Related to: linux-networking, iptables

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Policy Based Routing if: You want it is particularly useful for directing specific types of traffic (e and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Traffic Shaping if: You prioritize do not reach for htb to rate-limit an http api; that's an l2/l3 packet queue, not a request counter over what Policy Based Routing offers.

The Bottom Line

Policy Based Routing wins

Developers should learn PBR when designing or managing complex network infrastructures that require granular control over traffic routing, such as in multi-homed networks, load balancing scenarios, or compliance with regulatory requirements