SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSIGNING MULTI-INSTANCE SERVICES IN A PROVIDER NETWORK

摘要

A system and method for placing inline services having multiple instances in a service provider network. In one implementation, a topology of the service provider network and services to be placed therein are defined, wherein a network node may include a data forwarding functionality and a control plane functionality. Using service chaining policy requirements, the number of service instances, etc. as input, services and their multiple instances are placed within the network such that an overall network metric is optimized for all subscriber data flows.

主权项

1. A network management node configured to operate with a service provider network, the network management node comprising:
one or more processors; and a persistent memory coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the persistent memory includes instructions executable by one or more processors and configured to:
define a topology of the service provider network having a plurality of network nodes, each network node including a data forwarding plane functionality and a control plane functionality;define a set of services to be placed within the service provider network, wherein at least one service is provided in multiple instances;obtain a set of service requirements for a plurality of subscriber data flows entering the service provider network at one or more ingress nodes, wherein each service requirement is defined as a sequence of services to be traversed for each subscriber data flow before exiting from one or more egress nodes; andassign the services including the at least one service having multiple instances to one or more network nodes of the service provider network such that a network metric associated with the service provider network is optimized for all subscriber data flows.