---
title: How it works
description: How Dedicated CDN Egress IPs are allocated and route traffic to your origin.
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/core-services-preview.png
---

> Documentation Index  
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/smart-shield/llms.txt  
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. 

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# How it works

Refer to the pages below to understand how Dedicated CDN Egress IPs work.

* [ Egress IPs ](https://developers.cloudflare.com/smart-shield/configuration/dedicated-egress-ips/how-it-works/egress-ips/)
* [ Connection forwarding ](https://developers.cloudflare.com/smart-shield/configuration/dedicated-egress-ips/how-it-works/connection-forwarding/)

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