cid d34632511303d9b3d55c04af0dd26a7b66403bcc253ce79e274a0922c7842dc9 · original · via openalex
Title: Comparative Evaluation of Linkerd and Istio Service Meshes in a Microservices Architecture Application Authors: Kevin Bosquez; Ximena Caiza; Lucía Núñez; Joffre Stalin Monar Monar Venue: IEEE Colombian Caribbean Conference (C3) Year: 2025 Canonical: doi:10.1109/c366505.2025.11340184 URL: https://doi.org/10.1109/c366505.2025.11340184 Collector: openalex OA: false ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative evaluation of the Linkerd and Istio service meshes in terms of CPU consumption, RAM memory, and latency in microservice architectures. A problem was identified related to the lack of practical evidence that objectively compares the performance of Istio and Linkerd service meshes, especially in terms of latency, CPU consumption, and RAM. To address this problem, a mixed approach was adopted that combined systematic literature review using PRISMA, experimental design with Design Science Research (DSR), and quantitative analysis using the SEMMA methodology. The Online Boutique application was deployed on Kubernetes, alternating between Istio and Linkerd implementations, and key metrics such as latency, CPU, and RAM usage were measured using metricsserver under low, medium, and high load scenarios. The results revealed that Linkerd had lower average latency (104 ms vs. 135 ms), lower CPU and RAM consumption, and greater stability under high load, with no errors recorded, while Istio reached high consumption peaks and presented internal failures. These results imply that Linkerd is more suitable for environments that prioritize efficiency and performance, while Istio remains useful when advanced observability and control features are required. This research provides relevant empirical evidence to guide decisions in the selection of service meshes in distributed architectures.