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Cilium Service Mesh replaces Istio or Linkerd sidecars with eBPF in the kernel: it handles policy, WireGuard encryption, and Hubble observability without a per-pod proxy, cutting memory overhead from roughly 100 GB to about 5 GB in a 100-node cluster. It suits large clusters with teams comfortable with eBPF.
A service mesh adds mTLS, uniform observability, and traffic management between microservices without modifying application code. The ecosystem has consolidated: Istio is the most complete and complex, Linkerd prioritises simplicity with Rust proxies, and Cilium delivers sidecarless service mesh via eBPF.
eBPF is a Linux kernel technology that lets you load and run verified, high-performance programs without recompiling the kernel or rebooting the system. It runs safely inside a virtual machine in the kernel and underpins tools such as Cilium, Pixie, Falco, and Tetragon for real-time tracing, networking, and security.
Cilium replaces iptables with eBPF programs loaded directly into the Linux kernel, substituting O(n) linear chains with O(1) hash lookups. Documented benchmarks show up to 50% lower p95 latency, 2-3x more throughput, and 70% less kernel CPU in large Kubernetes clusters.
eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter) is a Linux kernel technology that runs verified programs directly inside the kernel, with no modules and no source-code changes. The kernel verifier rejects any unsafe program before it runs, letting teams monitor system calls, network traffic, and I/O at a much lower CPU cost than traditional external probes.
