Web Content Switching

Web Content Switching Load Balancers

Content switching is known by a number of different names but essentially we are talking the content switch feature which is specifically intended to offer better load balancing performance for website content, because the various requests can be routed more effectively to the servers that can respond to them in an efficient manner. All Kemp Technologies LoadMaster load balancers offer industry leading web content switching capabilities

Alternative names for content switches

Content switches are also known as:

• Web switch
• URL switch
• URL ReWrite

LoadMaster load balancer content switches operate at either layer 7 or layer 4 of the OSI model. Streaming video and audio need a long life “sticky” connection to provide a more satisfactory user experience so we support this. For this reason servers that are geographically located nearer to users are preferred to provide the content delivery service.

On the other hand static server requests can be handled from the LoadMaster cache for faster performance, at the same time dynamic requests will be directed to go round the cache server by the load balancer.

Key content switching processes supported by Kemp LoadMasters

• Content switching refers to the ability to distribute (or load balance) user requests to servers based on Layer 7 payload.
• Generally, this is done by examining page content (such as a URL) and "switching" the requests to the appropriate server or group of servers.
• A Layer 7-capable ADC can switch users based on cookie values, which achieves server persistence.