ANALYSIS OF INCOMING DATA TRANSMISSIONS

摘要

A method, system, and computer-readable medium for integrating multiple techniques (343, 345, 347, 349) for processing data communications is described in which the processing steps shared by multiple of the techniques do not have to be duplicated by each of the techniques. In some situations, some or all of the multiple processing techniques are performed in parallel, such as on different processors. In some situations, a Multi-Protocol Edge Switch ("MPEX" 300) is used to integrate multiple processing techniques (343, 345, 347, 349) for received data communications that are to be forwarded to a destination, such as by performing protocol translation, performing load balancing between multiple alternative destinations (347) on one or more of the networks to which the MPEX (300) belongs, performing firewall and other content-based analysis (345) for any or all of the nodes on one or more of the networks to which the MPEX (300) belongs, and/or providing content-based routing of data communications in order to identify appropriate destinations.