US Patent 7209977 Method and apparatus for content-aware web switching

This invention provides methods and apparatus for web switching without connection termination while providing content routing functionality. Content-aware web switches terminate incoming TCP connections and inspect the HTTP header to recognize the URL (content) being requested from a web server farm. This invention maps application layer information (URLs) to MPLS labels. This allows a standard MPLS switch to provide web switching functionality without terminating TCP connections. In addition to content routing, this method is applied for client session affinity, server load balancing and service differentiation. This invention also relates to using TCP port numbers instead of MPLS labels to achieve web-switching functionality through the use of a TCP router that translates IP address and port numbers.