SRv6 Segment Identifiers and Micro Segments Invoking Network Behavior including Realization of Network Slices

A packet switching device, comprising:

• a plurality of hardware interfaces sending and receiving packets;
• and
• one or more network processors with memory associated therewith;
• wherein the packet switching device performs packet processing operations, with said packet processing operations including:
• receiving via one of said hardware interfaces, a Segment Routing version 6 (SRv6) packet including an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Destination address that is an address of the packet switching device, with the IPv6 Destination address including a plurality of micro segments (uSIDs) with a particular uSID of the plurality of uSIDs mapping to a particular Network Slice behavior of a plurality of different Network Slice behaviors performed on different packets by the packet switching device;
• processing of said received SRv6 by the particular packet switching device including differential processing the particular SRv6 packet according to the particular Network Slice behavior, with said differential processing being different than processing according to one of the plurality of different Network Slices behaviors that is not the particular Network Slice behavior, updating of the IPv6 Destination Address comprising removing a routing uSID identifying the packet switching device and shifting into higher-order bit positions one or more uSIDs in the IPv6 Destination Address of said received SRv6 packets;
• and sending from a hardware interface of the plurality of hardware interfaces the SRv6 packet with said updated IPv6 Destination Address.