The `trace_peer_forwarder` processor is used with [peer forwarder]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/data-prepper/managing-data-prepper/peer-forwarder/) to reduce by half the number of events forwarded in a [Trace Analytics]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/data-prepper/common-use-cases/trace-analytics/) pipeline. In Trace Analytics, each event is typically duplicated when it is sent from `otel-trace-pipeline` to `raw-pipeline` and `service-map-pipeline`. When pipelines forward events, this causes the core peer forwarder to send multiple HTTP requests for the same event. You can use `trace peer forwarder` to forward an event once through the `otel-trace-pipeline` instead of `raw-pipeline` and `service-map-pipeline`, which prevents unnecessary HTTP requests.
To get started with `trace_peer_forwarder`, first configure [peer forwarder]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/data-prepper/managing-data-prepper/peer-forwarder/). Then create a `pipeline.yaml` file and specify `trace peer forwarder` as the processor. You can configure `peer forwarder` in your `data-prepper-config.yaml` file. For more detailed information, see [Configuring Data Prepper]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/data-prepper/getting-started/#2-configuring-data-prepper).
In the preceding `pipeline.yaml` file, events are forwarded in the `otel-trace-pipeline` to the target peer, and no forwarding is performed in `raw-pipeline` or `service-map-pipeline`. This process helps improve network performance by forwarding events (as HTTP requests) once instead of twice.