Building a Unified API Gateway for Modern Logistics
Technical deep dive into our API-first architecture, event-driven design, and real-time data processing pipeline.
Introduction
When we started building our Unified Logistics API, we faced several key challenges in connecting disparate systems across the logistics industry. This post details our technical approach and the architecture decisions that enabled us to build a scalable, reliable platform.
Key Challenges
- Multiple data formats and protocols across different providers
- Real-time tracking requirements
- High availability needs
- Complex rate limiting and access control
Architecture Overview
Our solution uses a microservices architecture with the following key components:
gateway/
├── api/
│ ├── routes/
│ ├── middleware/
│ └── validators/
├── services/
│ ├── tracking/
│ ├── routing/
│ └── billing/
└── events/
├── producers/
└── consumers/
Implementation Details
The gateway is built using Node.js and Express, with GraphQL for flexible data querying. We use Redis for caching and RabbitMQ for event handling.
Key Features
- Automatic protocol translation
- Real-time event streaming
- Intelligent rate limiting
- Automatic documentation generation
Performance Optimization
We implemented several optimizations to ensure high performance:
- Response caching with intelligent invalidation
- Connection pooling for database operations
- Batch processing for bulk operations
- Distributed tracing for performance monitoring
Results
The new architecture has delivered significant improvements:
- 99.99% uptime
- Average response time under 100ms
- Support for 1M+ daily API requests
- 50+ integrated providers
Lessons Learned
Key takeaways from building and scaling the API gateway:
- Invest in proper API design upfront
- Build for observability from day one
- Implement graceful degradation
- Maintain backward compatibility