# Cloudflare Authors - What is Anycast (Highlights) ![rw-book-cover|256](https://www.cloudflare.com/static/d2cf82ac895f472c6d208cdccf4e722e/cdn-lc.png) ## Highlights - Anycast is a network addressing and routing method in which incoming requests can be routed to a variety of different locations or “nodes.” In the context of a [CDN](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/cdn/what-is-a-cdn/), Anycast typically routes incoming traffic to the nearest [data center](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/cdn/glossary/data-center/) with the capacity to process the request efficiently. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gtbm35sgj8dfzg7cf21hcmn7)) ^483801504 - Anycast is characterized by a 1-to-1 of many association, and is one of the 5 main network protocol methods used in the Internet protocol. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gtbm54dymn1dywd24sm96vgw)) ^483801828 - This [Cloudflare blog post](https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflares-architecture-eliminating-single-p/) explains how Cloudflare uses Anycast to load balance without load balancers. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gtbm8g1k7v09q659e0bv5xdg)) ^483802879 (see:: [[Matthew Prince - Load Balancing without Load Balancers (Highlights)]])