Method and Apparatus for Supporting Service Function Chaining in a Communication Network

• US 20180054384A1
• Filed: 10/31/2017
• Published: 02/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Farmanbar, Hamidreza
• Granted Patent: US 10,897,419 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data

Abstract

A method and apparatus supporting service function chaining in a communication network is provided. Service function chaining requires packets of a service to pass through a defined sequence of service nodes of the network. Traffic engineering support includes defining service segments, determining demands for each service segment, determining flow group conservation constraints using the determined demands, and determining a resource allocation for data links which respects the flow group conservation constraints along with a link capacity constraint. A service-based forwarding operation re-labels packets as they traverse each service segment, and forwards packets toward a destination service node of each service segment.

Claims

1. A router for routing a packet in a multi-hop data network, the packet belonging to a service, the service corresponding to a set of service nodes through which the packet is required to pass, the router communicatively coupled to one of the set of service nodes and comprising a data packet handling interface configured to:

receive the packet and process a label, carried by the packet, comprising an indication of a first service segment traversed by the data packet;

adjust the label to include an indication of a second service segment to be traversed by the packet upon transmission of the packet from the router; and

transmit the packet toward a further service node of the set of service nodes based on the indication of the second service segment.

2. The router of claim 1, wherein transmitting the packet toward the further service node comprises transmitting the packet to an intermediate router located between the router and the further service node.

3. The router of claim 1, further configured to determine the indication of the further service segment based on the indication of the first service segment or based on a service identifier carried by the packet.

4. The router of claim 1, further comprising an input network interface configured to receive the indication of the second service segment from a traffic engineering controller for inclusion in the label.

5. The router of claim 1, further configured to determine the indication of the second service segment based on the indication of the first service segment, according to service-based label switching information received from a traffic engineering controller via an input network interface of the router.

6. The router of claim 1, further comprising an input network interface configured to receive service-based forwarding information from a traffic engineering controller, wherein transmitting the packet is based on the service-based forwarding information.

7. The router of claim 1, wherein the packet is routed according to destination-based routing based on the label.

8. A method for supporting service-based packet communication in a multi-hop data network, comprising:

providing an indication of a plurality of service segments, each service segment corresponding to a set of service links via which data flows into a service node or destination node, said data corresponding to a service requiring the data to pass through a specified sequence of service nodes;

determining a plurality of demand values corresponding respectively to the plurality of service segments, each demand value indicative of a combined demand of source nodes belonging to services for which service packets pass through the respective service segment; and

performing a traffic engineering optimization calculation with all service segments present and in consideration of the determined plurality of demand values.