Patent ID: 7209977

Claim:
A method comprising: applying a particular label for content aware Web switching to packets comprising a TCP/HTTP connection from a forward proxy in front of an enterprise network, to a reverse proxy in front of a server farm network, said enterprise network having at least one client, said particular label being based on content to enable content-based switching, including the steps of: forming a communication channel between the forward proxy and the reverse proxy; sending upon said communication channel a mapping of at least one stacked MPLS label from the reverse proxy to the forward proxy; and said forward proxy: inspecting each request received from each client from said at least one client; and assigning the particular label to all outgoing packets comprising the TCP/HTTP connection generated to serve the request to an appropriate server in the server farm network; said reverse proxy: reading said particular label on all incoming packets; identifying content requested; and based on said content switching said incoming packets to the appropriate server within said server farm while maintaining transport layer connections.