Concepts: request forwarding

Request forwarding enables data requests to be serviced by a site that is geographically closest to the object store database. With request forwarding, a Content Engine server communicates with an object store database over a local high-speed LAN instead of a remote server accessing the object store database over a lower-speed WAN, thus reducing network traffic and improving performance. The figure below illustrates this process:


In this example, Site B (with request forwarding enabled) forwards a GetObjects request to Site A. This request results in 1001 round trips between the server and the database in Site A over a high-speed LAN to collect the GetObjects request's result set, and a single roundtrip over the slow-speed WAN from Site B to Site A.

In contrast, Site C does not have request forwarding enabled. Site C must service the GetObjects request locally, which results in 1001 round trips from Site C to the database in Site A across the slow-speed WAN in order to collect the same result set.

By servicing the database request locally across the high-speed LAN, and returning the result in only one roundtrip across the WAN, network traffic is reduced and performance is increased.

Request forwarding has the following characteristics: