diff --git a/examples/websocket/README.md b/examples/websocket/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..337f568880
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/websocket/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# WebSocket support
+
+To load balance a WebSocket application with NGINX Ingress controllers, you need to add the **nginx.org/websocket-services** annotation to your Ingress resource definition. The annotation specifies which services are websocket services. The annotation syntax is as follows:
+```
+nginx.org/websocket-services: "service1[,service2,...]"
+```
+
+In the following example we load balance three applications, one of which is using WebSocket:
+```yaml
+apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
+kind: Ingress
+metadata:
+  name: cafe-ingress
+  annotations:
+    nginx.org/websocket-services: "ws-svc"
+spec:
+  rules:
+  - host: cafe.example.com
+    http:
+      paths:
+      - path: /tea
+        backend:
+          serviceName: tea-svc
+          servicePort: 80
+      - path: /coffee
+        backend:
+          serviceName: coffee-svc
+          servicePort: 80
+      - path: /ws
+        backend:
+          serviceName: ws-svc
+          servicePort: 8008
+```
+*ws-svc* is a service for the WebSocket application. The service becomes available at the `/ws` path. Note how we used the **nginx.org/websocket-services** annotation.
diff --git a/nginx-controller/nginx/configurator.go b/nginx-controller/nginx/configurator.go
index 4c45791967..fdbab6a726 100644
--- a/nginx-controller/nginx/configurator.go
+++ b/nginx-controller/nginx/configurator.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package nginx
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
@@ -78,6 +79,8 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) generateNginxCfg(ingEx *IngressEx, pems map[string]stri
 
 	upstreams := make(map[string]Upstream)
 
+	wsServices := getWebsocketServices(ingEx)
+
 	if ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend != nil {
 		name := getNameForUpstream(ingEx.Ingress, emptyHost, ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName)
 		upstream := cnf.createUpstream(ingEx, name, ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend, ingEx.Ingress.Namespace)
@@ -116,7 +119,7 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) generateNginxCfg(ingEx *IngressEx, pems map[string]stri
 				upstreams[upsName] = upstream
 			}
 
-			loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault(path.Path), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg)
+			loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault(path.Path), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg, wsServices[path.Backend.ServiceName])
 			locations = append(locations, loc)
 
 			if loc.Path == "/" {
@@ -126,7 +129,7 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) generateNginxCfg(ingEx *IngressEx, pems map[string]stri
 
 		if rootLocation == false && ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend != nil {
 			upsName := getNameForUpstream(ingEx.Ingress, emptyHost, ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName)
-			loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault("/"), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg)
+			loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault("/"), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg, wsServices[ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName])
 			locations = append(locations, loc)
 		}
 
@@ -147,7 +150,7 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) generateNginxCfg(ingEx *IngressEx, pems map[string]stri
 
 		upsName := getNameForUpstream(ingEx.Ingress, emptyHost, ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName)
 
-		loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault("/"), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg)
+		loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault("/"), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg, wsServices[ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName])
 		locations = append(locations, loc)
 
 		server.Locations = locations
@@ -172,13 +175,26 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) createConfig(ingEx *IngressEx) Config {
 	return ingCfg
 }
 
-func createLocation(path string, upstream Upstream, cfg *Config) Location {
+func getWebsocketServices(ingEx *IngressEx) map[string]bool {
+	wsServices := make(map[string]bool)
+
+	if services, exists := ingEx.Ingress.Annotations["nginx.org/websocket-services"]; exists {
+		for _, svc := range strings.Split(services, ",") {
+			wsServices[svc] = true
+		}
+	}
+
+	return wsServices
+}
+
+func createLocation(path string, upstream Upstream, cfg *Config, websocket bool) Location {
 	loc := Location{
 		Path:                path,
 		Upstream:            upstream,
 		ProxyConnectTimeout: cfg.ProxyConnectTimeout,
 		ProxyReadTimeout:    cfg.ProxyReadTimeout,
 		ClientMaxBodySize:   cfg.ClientMaxBodySize,
+		Websocket:           websocket,
 	}
 
 	return loc
diff --git a/nginx-controller/nginx/ingress.tmpl b/nginx-controller/nginx/ingress.tmpl
index a16ff8f6e8..09b18a0380 100644
--- a/nginx-controller/nginx/ingress.tmpl
+++ b/nginx-controller/nginx/ingress.tmpl
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@ server {
 
 	{{range $location := $server.Locations}}
 	location {{$location.Path}} {
+		proxy_http_version 1.1;
+		{{if $location.Websocket}}
+		proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
+		proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
+		{{end}}
 		proxy_connect_timeout {{$location.ProxyConnectTimeout}};
 		proxy_read_timeout {{$location.ProxyReadTimeout}};
 		client_max_body_size {{$location.ClientMaxBodySize}};
diff --git a/nginx-controller/nginx/nginx.conf.tmpl b/nginx-controller/nginx/nginx.conf.tmpl
index 97ef4c9889..c5803b323d 100644
--- a/nginx-controller/nginx/nginx.conf.tmpl
+++ b/nginx-controller/nginx/nginx.conf.tmpl
@@ -31,5 +31,10 @@ http {
     server_names_hash_max_size {{.ServerNamesHashMaxSize}};
     {{if .ServerNamesHashBucketSize}}server_names_hash_bucket_size {{.ServerNamesHashBucketSize}};{{end}}
 
+    map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
+        default upgrade;
+        ''      close;
+    }
+
     include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
 }
diff --git a/nginx-controller/nginx/nginx.go b/nginx-controller/nginx/nginx.go
index 12429d0fc3..1846a9eb03 100644
--- a/nginx-controller/nginx/nginx.go
+++ b/nginx-controller/nginx/nginx.go
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ type Location struct {
 	ProxyConnectTimeout string
 	ProxyReadTimeout    string
 	ClientMaxBodySize   string
+	Websocket           bool
 }
 
 // NginxMainConfig describe the main NGINX configuration file
diff --git a/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/configurator.go b/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/configurator.go
index d941f5cbb7..e328139737 100644
--- a/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/configurator.go
+++ b/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/configurator.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package nginx
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
@@ -81,6 +82,8 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) generateNginxCfg(ingEx *IngressEx, pems map[string]stri
 
 	upstreams := make(map[string]Upstream)
 
+	wsServices := getWebsocketServices(ingEx)
+
 	if ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend != nil {
 		name := getNameForUpstream(ingEx.Ingress, emptyHost, ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName)
 		upstream := cnf.createUpstream(name)
@@ -121,7 +124,7 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) generateNginxCfg(ingEx *IngressEx, pems map[string]stri
 				upstreams[upsName] = upstream
 			}
 
-			loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault(path.Path), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg)
+			loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault(path.Path), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg, wsServices[path.Backend.ServiceName])
 			locations = append(locations, loc)
 
 			if loc.Path == "/" {
@@ -131,7 +134,7 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) generateNginxCfg(ingEx *IngressEx, pems map[string]stri
 
 		if rootLocation == false && ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend != nil {
 			upsName := getNameForUpstream(ingEx.Ingress, emptyHost, ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName)
-			loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault("/"), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg)
+			loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault("/"), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg, wsServices[ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName])
 			locations = append(locations, loc)
 		}
 
@@ -156,7 +159,7 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) generateNginxCfg(ingEx *IngressEx, pems map[string]stri
 
 		upsName := getNameForUpstream(ingEx.Ingress, emptyHost, ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName)
 
-		loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault("/"), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg)
+		loc := createLocation(pathOrDefault("/"), upstreams[upsName], &ingCfg, wsServices[ingEx.Ingress.Spec.Backend.ServiceName])
 		locations = append(locations, loc)
 
 		server.Locations = locations
@@ -181,13 +184,26 @@ func (cnf *Configurator) createConfig(ingEx *IngressEx) Config {
 	return ingCfg
 }
 
-func createLocation(path string, upstream Upstream, cfg *Config) Location {
+func getWebsocketServices(ingEx *IngressEx) map[string]bool {
+	wsServices := make(map[string]bool)
+
+	if services, exists := ingEx.Ingress.Annotations["nginx.org/websocket-services"]; exists {
+		for _, svc := range strings.Split(services, ",") {
+			wsServices[svc] = true
+		}
+	}
+
+	return wsServices
+}
+
+func createLocation(path string, upstream Upstream, cfg *Config, websocket bool) Location {
 	loc := Location{
 		Path:                path,
 		Upstream:            upstream,
 		ProxyConnectTimeout: cfg.ProxyConnectTimeout,
 		ProxyReadTimeout:    cfg.ProxyReadTimeout,
 		ClientMaxBodySize:   cfg.ClientMaxBodySize,
+		Websocket:           websocket,
 	}
 
 	return loc
diff --git a/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/ingress.tmpl b/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/ingress.tmpl
index 03412cf914..a071d8b6a5 100644
--- a/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/ingress.tmpl
+++ b/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/ingress.tmpl
@@ -27,6 +27,11 @@ server {
 
 	{{range $location := $server.Locations}}
 	location {{$location.Path}} {
+		proxy_http_version 1.1;
+		{{if $location.Websocket}}
+		proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
+		proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
+		{{end}}
 		proxy_connect_timeout {{$location.ProxyConnectTimeout}};
 		proxy_read_timeout {{$location.ProxyReadTimeout}};
 		client_max_body_size {{$location.ClientMaxBodySize}};
diff --git a/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/nginx.conf.tmpl b/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/nginx.conf.tmpl
index 71d60a6c12..92a87fbe7c 100644
--- a/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/nginx.conf.tmpl
+++ b/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/nginx.conf.tmpl
@@ -31,5 +31,10 @@ http {
     server_names_hash_max_size {{.ServerNamesHashMaxSize}};
     {{if .ServerNamesHashBucketSize}}server_names_hash_bucket_size {{.ServerNamesHashBucketSize}};{{end}}
 
+    map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
+        default upgrade;
+        ''      close;
+    }
+
     include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
 }
diff --git a/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/nginx.go b/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/nginx.go
index edfee8fa6e..48a902fb87 100644
--- a/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/nginx.go
+++ b/nginx-plus-controller/nginx/nginx.go
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ type Location struct {
 	ProxyConnectTimeout string
 	ProxyReadTimeout    string
 	ClientMaxBodySize   string
+	Websocket           bool
 }
 
 // NginxMainConfig describe the main NGINX configuration file