# About our Anti-DDoS This document will explain the following: * [What is GLAD?](#what-is-glad) * [What is Warden?](#what-is-warden) * [Explanation of the product and its features](#glad-features-tools) * [Overview of product packages](#product-packages-overview) ## What is GLAD? GLAD (Global Low-Latency anti-DDoS protection) is a collection of in-house tools that we offer at i3D.net that can prevent, detect, and thwart a strike. It's important to understand what a "strike" is, what strikes can do to disrupt services, and how our GLAD product can deter such attacks.\ \ For more information about how attacks work and how they can impact services, see the [DDoS attack types overview.](https://docs.i3d.net/anti-ddos/attack-type-overview) ## What is Warden? **Warden** is i3D.net's advanced protocol-aware DDoS protection system, operating as a standalone add-on to GLAD Advanced. Unlike traditional DDoS protection that relies on volumetric filtering, Warden provides **intelligent traffic analysis** at the packet level, making it ideal for gaming, real-time communication, and applications using custom protocols. **Key Benefits of Warden:** * **Zero latency impact** - Direct NIC-level processing bypasses OS overhead * **Protocol-specific protection** - Understands legitimate vs. malicious traffic patterns * **Eliminates false positives** - Prevents blocking of legitimate users during attacks * **Real-time management** - API-driven configuration with sub-second propagation ## GLAD features/tools Below is an explanation of our i3D.net's GLAD's tooling and how each functionality can help to thwart DDoS attacks. ## What's included in the Standard package {% stepper %} {% step %} #### Default ACL (Access Control Lists) on VLAN Preset Access Control Lists ( **ACL** ) rules that protect against diverse attack types, such as DNS (Domain Name System) and/or UDP attacks. The rules are consistently updated and maintained throughout to ensure ongoing security. {% endstep %} {% step %} #### Automatic detection and auto null route With automatic detection, it will discover incoming DDoS attacks. Once an attacker network is detected, this service blocks all traffic from it. Also, null routing silently discards (or "drops") malicious incoming traffic. The undesired traffic is directed to a route that goes nowhere, protecting the infrastructure. Null routing renders the target server inaccessible to anyone, including clean traffic. {% endstep %} {% endstepper %} ## What's included in the Advanced package: {% hint style="success" %} *Advanced also includes the features from the Standard package above.* {% endhint %} {% stepper %} {% step %} #### Custom ACL (Access Control Lists) on VLAN With this feature, you can preset their own ACL rules to protect against most of attack types. For example, they can set the specific ports, protocols, IP addresses that need to be protected from attacks. {% endstep %} {% step %} #### Rate limiting If a specific destination IP/port combination is not critical to the continued operation of the application running on the server, it can be set to receive a limited amount of traffic. * It limits total traffic for a destination to a configurable Mbps value, such as “*all traffic to a certain destination port.*” * If the rate limit is exceeded, the overflow traffic is discarded randomly, affecting both legitimate and illegitimate traffic. **Understanding Rate Limits** Rate limits control the number of requests that a server can receive within a specific timeframe. These limits help maintain service quality and prevent abuse. Once exceeded, further requests may be blocked or delayed until the limit resets. For example: * If you normally expect 10 Mbps traffic to a certain destination IP & destination port combination, you might decide to set a 20 Mbps rate limit. * But if you then receive a 90 Mbps attack, the 20 Mbps rate limit will drop exceeding 80 Mbps randomly meaning you’ll pass through approximately 4 Mbps of legitimate traffic and 16 Mbps of illegitimate traffic. * This means you effectively have **60% packet loss on your legitimate 10 Mbps of traffic** when the rate limit is performing exactly as it was configured to do. * Its usefulness is therefore very limited for the actual application you’re trying to protect; **hard discard or accept methods are often more appropriate**. Clients often rate limit ICMP traffic to ensure servers respond to pings during normal operation, but halt responses during ICMP-based DDoS attacks. Meanwhile, the application/protocol/port which runs on the server remains unaffected by this ICMP traffic rate limit. {% endstep %} {% endstepper %} ## What's included in the Premium package: {% hint style="success" %} *Premium also includes the features from the Advanced and Standard packages above.* {% endhint %} {% stepper %} {% step %} #### Byte matching Byte matching is a technique that identifies and filters out malicious or undesirable traffic from incoming network packets based on specific byte patterns. Customers can tailor specified signatures. As a result, it blocks the bytes that are not supposed to enter the network by taking appropriate actions to safeguard the targeted infrastructure. {% endstep %} {% step %} #### API access This feature allows you to tailor your own protection as needed by managing protection profiles and white/blacklists through the API. {% endstep %} {% step %} #### Priority Support Dedicated technical support with faster response times and direct access to i3D.net's DDoS protection specialists. {% endstep %} {% endstepper %} ## Warden Add-On: {% hint style="success" %} **Warden is a part of the GLAD Premium package** and provides enterprise-grade, protocol-aware DDoS protection. {% endhint %} For unparalleled anti-DDoS protection, Warden is our custom software that filters traffic on a dynamic whitelist furnished by the customer. Its capabilities provide inline filtering, which allows you to achieve a higher level of specificity and detail when filtering their traffic stream. {% stepper %} {% step %} #### **Dynamic IP Whitelisting** Real-time IP management with sub-second global propagation. API-driven whitelist, greylist, and blacklist operations supporting millions of daily changes. {% endstep %} {% step %} #### **Advanced Payload Fingerprinting** Protocol-specific packet inspection with 32-bit payload analysis and configurable bit masks. Creates custom signatures for proprietary protocols and supports multiple client versions. {% endstep %} {% step %} #### **Zero-Latency Processing** Direct NIC-level filtering that bypasses OS overhead, maintaining sub-millisecond processing times with fail-open reliability. {% endstep %} {% step %} #### **Protocol-Aware Intelligence** Distinguishes legitimate traffic from attacks using application-specific patterns. Prevents false positives that block real users during DDoS events. {% endstep %} {% endstepper %} Warden is designed to be flexible and adaptable. New features are continuously added whenever technically feasible, enabling you to benefit from the latest advancements in traffic filtering technology. In the event of server failures, Warden follows a fail-open system. If the redundant systems fail, instead of dropping traffic, Warden allows all traffic to pass through. This ensures that your network remains operational even in challenging situations. Warden also supports Active-Active setups, allowing horizontal scaling. This means we can expand the capacity of our filtering infrastructure by adding more instances of Warden, distributing the workload, and ensuring scalability. For more information on integrating Warden, please refer to [Warden: Overview of how it works](https://docs.i3d.net/anti-ddos/warden-capabilities-and-benefits) ## Product packages overview Below is an overview of our product packages, detailing the features included. | Features | Standard | Advanced | Premium | | ---------------------------------------- | -------- | -------- | ------- | | Default ACL on VLAN | X | X | X | | Automatic detection and auto null-route | X | X | X | | Custom ACL on VLAN | - | X | X | | Rate limiting | - | X | X | | Byte matching | - | - | X | | API Access | - | - | X | | Priority Support | - | - | X | | Dynamic IP Whitelisting (Warden) | - | - | X | | Advanced Payload Fingerprinting (Warden) | - | - | X | | Protocol-Aware Intelligence (Warden) | - | - | X | | Zero-Latency Processing (Warden) | - | - | X | ### Getting Started * **GLAD packages** are available immediately upon service activation * **Warden** requires initial configuration consultation * **GLAD API access** for Warden is provided with comprehensive documentation at For more information on integrating Warden, please refer to [Warden: Overview of how it works](https://docs.i3d.net/anti-ddos/warden-capabilities-and-benefits) ## Related topics * [Attack types overview](https://docs.i3d.net/anti-ddos/attack-type-overview) * [DDoS category attack types](https://docs.i3d.net/anti-ddos/ddos-attack-types) * GLAD API reference: --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. 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