MODIFYING AN ADDRESS TO FORWARD A PACKET TO A SERVICE FUNCTION

• US 20170288909A1
• Filed: 12/03/2014
• Published: 10/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Bottorff, Paul, Fedyk, Donald
• Granted Patent: US 10,374,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5625 Operations, administration and maintenance [OAM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5685 Addressing issues

Abstract

Some examples herein disclose identifying a service function chain based on a switch address from a packet. The examples disclose modifying the switch address to an address corresponding to a service function based on the identified service function chain. The examples also disclose forwarding the packet to the service function according to the modified switch address.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a networking component to;

identify a service function chain based on a switch address from a packet;

modify the switch address from the packet to an address corresponding to a service function, the service function is a segment within the service function chain; and

a port coupled to the networking component to forward the packet to the service function based on the modified switch address.

2. The system of claim 1 comprising:

an ingress classifier to;

identify the packet as part of the service function chain;

determine an address to the networking component; and

route the packet to the networking component.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the modification of the switch address includes a modified destination address and a modified source address, the system comprising:

a virtual machine to;

host the service function at the modified destination address; and

route the packet to the modified source address.

4. The system of claim 1 comprising:

an openflow controller to;

provide a database to the networking component for identifying the service function chain from the database.

5. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processing resource cause a computing device to:

identify a service function chain based on a layer two (L2) portion of a packet;

modify a destination address on the L2 portion of the packet based on the identified service function chain, the modified destination address corresponds to an address of a service function and the service function is a segment within the service function chain; and

forward the packet to the service function corresponding to the modified destination address.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5 comprising instructions that when executed by the processor resource cause the computing device to:

receive a database, prior to identification of the service function, in which to identify the service function chain according to the L2 portion of the packet.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5 wherein the instructions to identify the service function chain based on the L2 portion of the packet comprise instructions that when executed by the processor resource cause the computing device to:

identify from the L2 portion of the packet, a destination address and a source address;

utilizing the destination address and the source address, identify from a database the service function chain.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5 wherein the instructions to modify the destination address on the L2 portion of the packet comprise instructions that when executed by the processor resource cause the computing device to:

modify a source address on the L2 portion of the packet, wherein the service function forwards the packet to the modified source address.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5 wherein the instructions to forward the packet to the service function corresponding to the modified destination address comprise instructions that when executed by the processor resource cause the computing device to:

forward the packet to a virtual machine hosting the service function.

10. A method, executable by a networking component, the method comprising:

identifying a service function chain based on a switch address from a packet;

modifying the switch address to an address corresponding to a service function based on the identified service function chain, the service function is a segment within the identified service function chain; and

forwarding the packet to the service function according to the modified switch address.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein modifying the switch address based on the identified service function chain comprises:

modifying a destination address and a source address of the packet, wherein the destination address is an address corresponding to the service function.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein forwarding the packet to the service function according to the modified switch address comprises:

forwarding the packet to a virtual machine hosting the service function.

13. The method of claim 10 comprising:

receiving a database, from an openflow controller, in which to identify the service function chain according to the switch address; and

receiving the packet.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein identifying the service function chain from the packet based on the switch address comprises:

using the switch address to identify the service function chain from a database, the service function chain includes a new destination address and a new source address.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the service function chain includes multiple segments for performing various service functions on the packet.