URL Redirection
A proxy server can redirect clients to alternate URLs to offset load across multiple servers. This is illustrated by the following diagram. The numbers in the diagram correspond to the following steps:
The client, configured to use proxy server P1, requests a song from origin server origin_1.
The cache proxy server instructs the client to request the song from an alternate origin server, origin_2.
The client, again using proxy P1, requests a song from origin server origin_2.
The proxy server connects to the origin server origin_2.
Typically, this is implemented when the proxy server is configured to be a reverse proxy and has information about the origin servers in the network. For example, if the proxy server is aware that requested content is on an origin server other than that identified by the client, it can use URL redirection to proxy content from a different origin server. Also, if the proxy server is aware of the loads on the origin servers, it can use URL redirection to balance the network.