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Anycast Network

What is an Anycast Network?​

Anycast networks are also known as IP anycast networks. It is a networking scheme that allows for assigning of one IP address to multiple servers. This is different than more traditional Unicast networks which assign one IP address to one server. Anycast routing benefits include:

  • Increased Speed - with the caching of a website's content on multiple servers, it allows end users the ability to access the information from the server that is closest to them, reducing the latency and time it takes to send requests and retrieve data
  • DDoS defense - - in the case of traffic floods, all the requests intended for one server can be disbursed among multiple servers
  • Redundancy - with multiple servers with the same content, if one server fails, others are there to back it up
  • Load Balancing - spreads resource requirements across multiple servers for greater efficiency and operational capability
  • Routing Options - not only can traffic be configured to route by geographic distance, it can also route based on server availability, number of connections to a server, and server response time

Polaris' WAAP is supported by a global Anycast network with PoPs throughout Southeast Asia to include mainland China, the United States, and Europe, to allow for greater flexibility in pushing content to end users while providing the ability to also protect against DoS attacks, Layers 7. The platform has a content caching option that allows users to cache their web application content on edge servers, which in turn allows internet users to access the content more quickly from the nearest server.