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System and method for enabling services chaining in a provider network

  • US 9,825,847 B2
  • Filed: 01/25/2017
  • Issued: 11/21/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of chaining services in a service provider network, the method comprising:

  • determining a service chaining policy associated with a data packet flow, the service chaining policy defining a plurality of service nodes to be traversed by the data packet flow entering at an ingress node and emitting from an egress node;

    determining a Service Path Identifier (SPID) associated with the service chaining policy; and

    effectuating an oscillatory data exchange process according to the service chaining policy, wherein the oscillatory data exchange process is initiated at the ingress node receiving the data packet flow and oscillates between the ingress node and the egress node that emits the data packet flow after obtaining services at the plurality of service nodes and further wherein each service node returns serviced data packets of the data packet flow to a nearest one of the ingress and egress nodes after providing a service to the data packet flow, the ingress and egress nodes operating to steer the returned serviced data packets to a next service node of the service chain policy.

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