Using service planes to perform services at the edge of a network

A method for providing a plurality of services at a logical router of a logical network implemented by physical forwarding elements of a datacenter, the method comprising:

• at the logical router,
• performing, for a data message received for routing, a service classification operation to determine that a particular chain of a plurality of service operations has to be performed on the data message;
• selecting, for the particular service chain, a service path to provide the plurality of services;
• sending the data message along the selected service path to have the plurality of services performed;
• and
• after receiving the data message from a service node that performs a last service operation, identifying a next hop in an external network as a next hop for the received data message and performing next hop forwarding on the data message.

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for providing a plurality of services at a router of a datacenter, the program for execution by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

• at the router,
• performing, for a data message received for routing, a service classification operation to determine that a particular chain of a plurality of service operations has to be performed on the data message;
• selecting, for the particular service chain, a service path to provide the plurality of services by performing a load balancing operation from a plurality of service paths associated with the particular service chain;
• sending the data message along the selected service path to have the plurality of services performed;
• and
• performing next hop forwarding on the data message after receiving the data message from a service node that performs a last service operation.

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for providing a plurality of services at a router of a datacenter, the program for execution by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

• at the router,
• performing, for a data message received for routing, a service classification operation to determine that a particular chain of a plurality of service operations has to be performed on the data message;
• selecting, for the particular service chain, a service path to provide the plurality of services, wherein the service path comprises a plurality of service nodes that connect to a logical service forwarding plane, and the selected service path is a path through the plurality of service nodes using the logical service forwarding plane;
• sending the data message along the selected service path to have the plurality of services performed;
• and
• performing next hop forwarding on the data message after receiving the data message from a service node that performs a last service operation.

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for providing a plurality of services at a logical router of a logical network implemented by physical forwarding elements of a datacenter, the program for execution by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

• at the logical router,
• performing, for a data message received for routing, a service classification operation to determine that a particular chain of a plurality of service operations has to be performed on the data message;
• selecting, for the particular service chain, a service path to provide the plurality of services;
• sending the data message along the selected service path to have the plurality of services performed;
• and
• after receiving the data message from a service node that performs a last service operation, identifying a next hop within the logical network as a next hop for the data message and performing next hop forwarding on the data message.

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for providing a plurality of services at a logical router of a logical network implemented by physical forwarding elements of a datacenter, the program for execution by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

• at the logical router,
• performing, for a data message received for routing, a service classification operation to determine that a particular chain of a plurality of service operations has to be performed on the data message;
• selecting, for the particular service chain, a service path to provide the plurality of services;
• sending the data message along the selected service path to have the plurality of services performed;
• and
• after receiving the data message from a service node that performs a last service operation, identifying a next hop in an external network as a next hop for the data message and performing next hop forwarding on the data message.