Importance

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Abstract

Some embodiments provide a novel content switching method that distributes requests for different types of content to different sets of content servers. In some embodiments, the method deploys a content switch in the ingress data path of a first content server that is part of a first set of servers that processes requests for a first type of content. This content switch receives each content request that is directed to the first content server, and determines whether the received request is for the first content type that is processed by the first content server. If so, the content switch directs the request to the first content server. On the other hand, if the request is for a second type of content that is processed by a second set of servers, the content switch identifies a second content server in the second set and forwards the request to the second content server. When the second set of servers includes two or more servers, the content switch in some embodiments performs a load balancing operation to distribute the load amongst the servers in the second set. For each request, the load balancing operation in some embodiments selects one server from the second server set based on a set of load balancing criteria that specifies one manner for distributing the requests among the servers of the second set, and then forwards the request to the selected server.

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First Claim