Building Metadata-Driven Domain-Centric Routing for API Gateways
Modern API integration landscapes often end up fragmented:
proxy-per-backend systems
exploding configuration artifacts
frequent redeploys for every service change
tight coupling between routing logic and vendor platforms
What if instead of continuously rebuilding proxy layers, we treat routing as a governance layer orchestrated by metadata and domain semantics?
In a recent independent research effort, I explored an architectural model called Gateway Domain-Centric Routing (GDCR) — a vendor-neutral, metadata-driven approach that separates:
✅ Immutable execution plane (proxies + routing engine)
✅ Mutable control plane (metadata + routing definitions)
The core idea is that when new backends or vendors are introduced, the system doesn’t require modifying the routing proxies or redeployment. Instead, the routing engine reads updated metadata and resolves requests according to business domain semantics.
This model was validated across multiple platforms (Kong, SAP BTP, AWS, Azure) using SAP CPI as backend. Over 1,499,869 requests were processed with:
✔ 99.9916% end-to-end success
✔ 100% routing resolution success (zero routing failures)
The full paper defines the routing lifecycle, action normalization, metadata strategy, and design principles.
If you’re interested in domain-centric API governance, metadata-driven routing, or scalable integration patterns, feel free to read the full documentation here:
👉 https://zenodo.org/records/18836272
I’d be happy to discuss how this pattern can be applied in real enterprise environments.
Author: Ricardo Luz Holanda Viana
Enterprise Integration Architect | SAP BTP Integration Suite Expert
SAP Press e-Bite Author
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ricardo-viana-br1984
Medium: medium.com/@rhviana
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