Patent ID: 8108461

Claim:
A method for processing a request sent over a network, comprising: receiving, by a first instance of a first application hosted on a first physical server, a first request sent by a client over the network; processing the first request, using the first instance of the first application, to generate a second request for processing by the first instance of a second application; sending the second request to a first instance of a distributed service delivery controller (SDC) on the first physical server, wherein the distributed SDC is implemented in software, and wherein the second request is addressed to a loopback interface Internet Protocol (IP) address and a port associated with the distributed SDC; determining, using the first instance of the distributed SDC, a first destination port and a first destination IP address for a first destination server hosting the first instance of the second application; processing the second request on a network layer of a first network protocol stack of the first physical server; and sending the processed second request to the first destination server.