# Should I use TCP option address (TOA) or proxy protocol for network acceleration?

TCP option address (TOA) and proxy protocol are both used for network acceleration and load balancing, but they have different use cases and considerations.

TOA is a technology that adds additional addressing information to the TCP header, including the object address and cluster ID, which allows network devices to more efficiently route and load balance traffic. TOA is often used in conjunction with a load balancer or application delivery controller (ADC) to optimize traffic flows and improve performance. TOA is transparent to the application and does not require any modifications to the application or server.

On the other hand, proxy protocol is a layer 4 protocol that adds metadata about the incoming client connection to the header of the forwarded request. This metadata includes information about the client IP address, protocol, and port, and allows the backend servers to see the original client information, even if the connection was terminated by the load balancer or proxy. Proxy protocol is used in situations where the load balancer or proxy needs to terminate SSL/TLS connections or when the backend servers need to see the original client information.

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