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Networking Advanced

What is Anycast?

A network routing technique where the same IP address is announced from multiple locations, directing users to the nearest server.

Anycast assigns a single IP address to multiple servers in different geographic locations. Network routing protocols (BGP) automatically direct each user's traffic to the nearest server instance. This provides automatic load distribution, DDoS mitigation (attack traffic is absorbed across all locations), and low latency (users connect to the closest node). CDN providers, DNS services (Cloudflare, Google Public DNS), and cloud providers use anycast extensively. If one anycast node fails, traffic automatically routes to the next nearest node, providing built-in fault tolerance without client-side changes.

Related Terms

Proxy Server
An intermediary server that forwards requests between clients and destination servers, providing caching, filtering, or anonymity.
Network Packet
A formatted unit of data carried over a network, containing headers with routing information and a payload with the actual data.
Subnet
A logical division of an IP network into smaller segments to improve performance, security, and management.
Load Balancer
A device or software that distributes network traffic across multiple servers to ensure reliability and performance.
Network ACL
A set of rules that control inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level, acting as a stateless firewall in cloud and enterprise networks.
Firewall
A network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing traffic based on predetermined rules.
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