Design, Implementation and Performance of a Content-Based Switch

In this paper, the authors share their experience in designing and building content based switch which they call L5. In addition to the layer 2-3-4 information available in the packet, a content based switch uses application level information to route traffic in the network. Making routing decisions based on information contained in the payload is not a new idea. In fact application level proxies which are functionally equivalent to a content-based switch have been around for years.