Istio is a service mesh platform that provides traffic management, security, and observability for microservices. It consists of a control plane (Istiod), data plane proxies (Envoy or Ztunnel), and operational tools (istioctl, operator). The system secures service-to-service communication via mTLS and authorization policies, manages traffic routing and load balancing, and collects telemetry data. Architecture follows a modular design with clear separation between control plane (configuration distribution, certificate management), data plane (traffic interception and policy enforcement), and plug-in points (CNI, WebAssembly, gateway APIs). Key entry points include istioctl CLI, pilot-discovery control plane, and CNI node agent. The codebase demonstrates strong engineering practices with extensive testing, interface-based abstractions, and reusable utility libraries.