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US 10,708,178 B2Granted
Method, medium, and apparatus for inserting a placeholder service function
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsReinaldo Penno, Carlos M. Pignataro, Paul Quinn, Hung The Chau, Chui-Tin Yen, Vivek Kansal, Jianxin Wang, Kent K. Leung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments are directed to receiving an original packet at a service function; determining, for a reverse packet, a reverse service path identifier for a previous hop on a service function chain; determining, for the reverse packet, a service index for the reverse service path identifier; and transmitting the reverse packet to the previous hop on the service function chain.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- identifying a forward service function path of a service function chain for a packet, the forward service function path comprising a first plurality of service functions in a forward direction;
- identifying a reverse service function path for the packet, the reverse service function path comprising a second plurality of service functions in a reverse direction;
- determining a difference between the forward service function path and the reverse service function path by comparing the first plurality of service functions to the second plurality of service functions;
- based on the difference between the forward service function path and the reverse service function path, inserting into at least one of the forward service function path or the reverse service function path a placeholder service function for each service function that is not included in both the first plurality of service functions and the second plurality of service functions;
- and
- forwarding the packet through the service function chain along the forward service function path.
3 more elements
A computer-readable non-transitory medium comprising one or more instructions for determining a service function chain for a packet, that when executed on a processor configure the processor to:
- identify a forward service function path of the service function chain for the packet, the forward service function path comprising a first plurality of service functions in a forward direction;
- identify a reverse service function path for the packet, the reverse service function path comprising a second plurality of service functions in a reverse direction;
- determine a difference between the forward service function path and the reverse service function path by comparing the first plurality of service functions to the second plurality of service functions;
- based on the difference between the forward service function path and the reverse service function path, insert into at least one of the forward service function path or the reverse service function path a placeholder service function for each service function that is not included in both the first plurality of service functions and the second plurality of service functions;
- and
- forward the packet through the service function chain along the forward service function path.
3 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- at least one memory element having instructions stored thereon;
- at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory element and configured to execute the instructions to cause the processor to:
- identify a forward service function path of a service function chain for a packet, the forward service function path comprising a first plurality of service functions in a forward direction;
- identify a reverse service function path for the packet, the reverse service function path comprising a second plurality of service functions in a reverse direction;
- determine a difference between the forward service function path and the reverse service function path by comparing the first plurality of service functions to the second plurality of service functions;
- based on the difference between the forward service function path and the reverse service function path, insert into at least one of the forward service function path or the reverse service function path a placeholder service function for each service function that is not included in both the first plurality of service functions and the second plurality of service functions;
- and
- forward the packet through the service function chain along the forward service function path.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.