optimising network sockets to handle a large number of clients at the same time. The name C10k is a numeronym for concurrently handling ten thousand connections. Note that concurrent connections are not the same as requests per second, though they are similar: handling many requests per second requires high throughput (processing them quickly), while high number of concurrent connections requires efficient scheduling of connections.
A handler can do one of the following: • Respond to the request. • Delegate to the next handler in the chain. • Insert more handlers in the chain and delegate to them.