 actually removing it from the socket buffers. When AppSwitch returns the FD to the application and steps out of the datapath, the application would do an actual read on the connection. AppSwitch uses this technique to perform deeper analysis of application-level traffic and implement sophisticated network functions as discussed in the next section, all without getting into the datapath.</p><h3 id=zero-cost-load-balancer-firewall-and-network-analyzer>Zero-cost load balancer, firewall and network analyzer</h