Processing Modes

The Spec Platform can run in three processing modes:

• Pass-through

• Active

• CDN Mirror

Pass-through

• All traffic streams unbuffered through a Spec region. Spec copies data and generates events based on requests and responses.

  • Traversing a Spec region in pass-through has a <1 ms p95 latency.

Pass-through: Streaming bi-directional traffic is copied for analysis.

Active

• Most traffic (usually > 99%) streams unbuffered through the Spec network. Spec copies data and generates events based on requests and responses.

  • Traversing a Spec region in active mode has a <1 ms p95 latency.

• Specific routes where Spec may take real-time enforcement action will be processed synchronously. The most common usage includes requests that represent authorization attempts, payment attempts, or account updates. These usually account for less than < 1% of all traffic.

  • Synchronous processing has a <20ms p95 latency on these targeted requests, but customers can configure workflows that trigger synchronous integrations that would add their round trip time to this processing.

Active: Streaming bi-directional traffic analysis with targeted mitigations.

CDN Mirror

• The customer configures an external mirror to forward requests to a Spec region, where the mirrored requests are terminated.

  • Sending requests to Spec this way is typically done at the CDN and is subject to the performance and limitations of that CDN's request mirroring capability.

CDN Mirror: Request-only endpoint for mirrored traffic.

Comparison of Processing Modes

The table below outlines the capabilities, considerations, and deployment tasks associated with each processing mode:

	Pass-through	Active	CDN Mirror
Events Available	Requests Responses	Requests Responses	Requests Only
Actions Available	Data Labeling Integrations	Data Labeling Integrations Block Redirect Honeypot	Data Labeling Integrations
Network Updates	TLS authorization Add Spec IP range to ACLs Set up health check targets Route through Spec	TLS authorization Add Spec IP range to ACLs Set up health check targets Route through Spec	Configure CDN-specific request mirroring service
Availability Features	Automatic Spec DNS failover Automatic Spec HTTPS failover	Automatic Spec DNS failover Automatic Spec HTTPS failover	Configurable CDN error handling
Connection Methods	DNS CDN Config Service Worker*	DNS CDN Config Service Worker*	Service Worker

• Some platforms impose Service Worker implementations that may not be appropriate for your application.