This topic provides an overview of listeners. After you create an SLB instance, you must configure one or more listeners for it. A listener checks for connection requests and then distributes the requests to backend servers based on the forwarding rules that are defined by a specified scheduling algorithm.
SLB provides listeners for Layer-4 (TCP and UDP) and Layer-7 (HTTP and HTTPS) load balancing. The following table lists the features and use cases of these listeners.
Protocol | Feature | Use case |
---|---|---|
TCP |
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For more information, see Add a TCP listener. |
UDP |
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Services that focus on real-time content delivery other than reliability, such as video chats and real-time quotes For more information, see Add a UDP listener. |
HTTP |
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Applications that need to identify data content, such as web applications and small-sized mobile games For more information, see Add an HTTP listener. |
HTTPS |
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Applications that require encrypted transmission For more information, see Add an HTTPS listener. |