MS Docs

Networking Guidelines

Welcome to the networking guidelines section for our platform. This document outlines best practices, recommendations, and requirements for developing and deploying networked applications and services.

General Principles

Our networking strategy is built on the following core principles:

• Security First: All network communications must be secured by default. Encryption, authentication, and authorization are paramount.
• Performance & Scalability: Applications should be designed to be performant and scalable, considering potential network latency and high traffic loads.
• Reliability & Resilience: Implement robust error handling, retry mechanisms, and fault tolerance to ensure continuous operation.
• Observability: Ensure comprehensive logging, monitoring, and tracing for all network interactions.

Protocol Recommendations

We recommend the following protocols for various use cases:

• HTTP/2 or HTTP/3: For modern web communication, offering improved performance through multiplexing and header compression.
• gRPC: For high-performance inter-service communication, leveraging Protocol Buffers and HTTP/2.
• WebSockets: For real-time, bidirectional communication between clients and servers.
• TLS 1.2+ (with strong cipher suites): For all secure data transmission. Avoid outdated TLS versions and weak ciphers.

Security Considerations

Security is non-negotiable. Pay close attention to the following:

• Encryption: All external and sensitive internal communications must be encrypted using TLS.
• Authentication & Authorization: Implement strong authentication mechanisms (e.g., OAuth 2.0, JWT) and granular authorization policies.
• Input Validation: Sanitize all incoming data to prevent injection attacks.
• Rate Limiting & Throttling: Protect your services from abuse and denial-of-service attacks.
• Network Segmentation: Isolate services and data based on security requirements.
• Least Privilege: Grant only the necessary network access to services and users.

Performance Optimization

To ensure a smooth user experience and efficient resource utilization:

• Minimize Latency: Keep communication paths short, leverage content delivery networks (CDNs), and optimize payload sizes.
• Asynchronous Operations: Design applications to handle network I/O asynchronously to avoid blocking threads.
• Connection Pooling: Reuse established network connections where appropriate.
• Data Compression: Use gzip or Brotli compression for textual data.

Error Handling and Resilience

Network failures are inevitable. Build systems that can withstand them:

• Idempotency: Design API endpoints to be idempotent where possible.
• Retry Logic: Implement exponential backoff and jitter for retries.
• Circuit Breakers: Protect downstream services from cascading failures.
• Graceful Degradation: Design your application to function, perhaps with reduced functionality, even when certain network services are unavailable.

Observability and Monitoring

Understanding your network traffic is crucial for troubleshooting and performance tuning:

Further Reading

• Understanding TLS Cipher Suites
• Best Practices for gRPC Communication
• Implementing Circuit Breakers with [Library Name]