MECHANISMS TO SUPPORT SERVICE CHAIN GRAPHS IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK

摘要

A novel scheme is defined for supporting service graphs to allow specific service functions to be applied to selected subsets of packet flows. According to one or more embodiments, a service graph is modeled as chains or sequences of “flow steering entities” and “service instances.” According to an embodiment, a flow steering entity (FSE) is configured to identify the flow, and select the next hop service instance in the chain. After a service instance returns the flow packet, the FSE steers the packet to the next FSE in the graph. An initial FSE is used to select matching traffic to enter the service graph. Wherever path forking and merging is required in the service graph, additional classifiers are positioned with the FSE to steer a subset of traffic along different paths of service function instances.

主权项

1. A computing device comprised in a network of communicatively coupled computing nodes and operable to facilitate flows of data packets between computing nodes within the network, the computing device comprising;
a memory, operable to store a plurality of programmed instructions; a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and operable to execute the plurality of programmed instructions to implement a service graph by: determining a plurality of service instances performed at the plurality of computing nodes, associating a plurality of classifiers to each of the plurality of computing nodes, and generating a plurality of data paths for flows of data packets to traverse the network based on the plurality of service instances performed at the plurality of computing nodes and based on the plurality of classifiers associated at each of the plurality of computing nodes.