BigIP F5 Platform

BigIP F5 is the hardware platform that can be configured to provide the functionality of multiple modules like LTM, GTM, APM, ASM, AFM, AAM, PEM etc

LTM – Local Traffic Manager

GTM – Global Traffic Manager

APM – Access Policy Manager

ASM – Application Security Manager

AFM – Advanced Firewall Manager

AAM – Application Acceleration Manager

PEM – Policy Enforcement Manager

Each hardware platform unit can only handle x number of modules at any one time. This number varies based on the platform. F5 has multiple platforms like 1600, 3600 etc based on the hardware capability. This is a link for the different F5 Hardware Platform Specifications.

Most commonly used modules are LTM & GTM. LTM serves as a Load Balancer or Application Delivery Controller within a single geographic location. GTM is used to load balance DNS requests across multiple geographic regions. ASM provides WAF (Web Application Firewall) functionality. APM provides access restrictions, policies and VPN access. AAM provides optimized application delivery utilizing various functions like compression, caching and the next generation HTTP protocols.

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