In one embodiment, a device in a network obtains tunnel flappiness metrics associated with a particular tunnel in the network exhibiting flapping. The device makes, based on the tunnel flappiness metrics, a prediction that the particular tunnel is going to flap. The prediction is made using a machine learning model. The device proactively reroutes, based on the prediction, traffic from the particular tunnel onto an alternate tunnel, prior to the particular tunnel flapping. The device evaluates performance of the alternate tunnel, after proactively rerouting the traffic from the particular tunnel onto the alternate tunnel.

Some embodiments provide a method of performing stateful services that keeps track of changes to states of service nodes to update connection tracker records when necessary. At least one global state value indicating a state of the service nodes is maintained at the edge device. The method generates a record in a connection tracker storage including the current global state value as a flow state value for a first data message in a data message flow. Each time a data message is received for the data message flow, the stored state value (i.e., a flow state value) is compared to the relevant global state value to determine if the stored action may have been updated. After a change in the global state value relevant to the flow the method examines a flow programming table to determine if the flow has been affected by a flow programming instruction(s) that caused the global state value to change.

Some embodiments configure an edge forwarding element to perform service insertion operations to identify stateful services to perform for data messages received for forwarding by the edge forwarding element at multiple virtual interfaces of the edge forwarding element. The service insertion operation, in some embodiments, includes applying a set of service insertion rules. The service insertion rules (1) specify a set of criteria and a corresponding action to take for data messages matching the criteria and (2) are associated with a set of interfaces to which the service insertion rules are applied. In some embodiments, the action is specified using a universally unique identifier (UUID) that is then used as a matching criteria for a subsequent policy lookup that identifies a type of service insertion and a set of next hop data.

Some embodiments provide stateful services in a chain of services identified for some data messages. The edge forwarding element receives a data message at a particular interface of the edge forwarding element that is traversing the edge forwarding element in a forward direction between two machines. The edge forwarding element identifies (1) a set of stateful services for the received data message and (2) a next hop associated with the identified set of stateful services in the forward direction and a next hop associated with the identified set of stateful services in the reverse direction. Based on the identified set of services and the next hops for the forward and reverse directions, the edge forwarding element generates and stores first and second connection tracking records for the forward and reverse data message flows, respectively used to forward data messages received subsequently for the flow.

Some embodiments provide novel methods for providing different types of services for a logical network associated with an edge forwarding element acting between the logical network and an external network. The edge forwarding element receives data messages for forwarding and performs a service classification operation to select a set of services of a particular type for the data message. The particular type of service is one of multiple different types of services that use different transport mechanisms to forward the data to a set of service nodes (e.g., service virtual machines, or service appliances, etc.) that provide the service. The edge forwarding element then receives the data message after the selected set of services has been performed and performs a forwarding operation to forward the data message. In some embodiments, the method is also performed by edge forwarding elements that are at the edges of logical network segments within the logical network.

Some embodiments facilitate the provision of a service reachable at a virtual internet protocol (VIP) address. The VIP address is used by clients to access a set of service nodes in the logical network. Facilitating the provision of the service, in some embodiments, includes returning a serviced data message to a load balancer that selected a service node to provide the service for the load balancer to track the state of the connection using the service logical forwarding element. To use the service logical forwarding element, some embodiments configure an egress datapath of the service nodes to intercept the serviced data message before being forwarded to a logical forwarding element in the datapath from the client to the service node, and determine if the serviced data message requires routing by the routing service provided as a service by the edge forwarding element.

For traffic exiting a logical network through a particular VTI, some embodiments perform a service classification operation for different data messages to identify different VTIs that connect the edge forwarding element to a service node to provide services required by the data messages. Each data message, in some embodiments, is then forwarded to the identified VTI to receive the required service. The identified VTI does not perform a service classification operation. The service node then returns the serviced data message to the edge forwarding element. In some embodiments, the identified VTI is not configured to perform the service classification operation and is instead configured to mark all traffic directed to the edge forwarding element as having been serviced. The marked serviced data message is received at the edge forwarding element and forwarded to a destination of the data message through the particular VTI.

Some embodiments provide novel methods for providing a set of services for a logical network associated with an edge forwarding element acting between a logical network and an external network. In some embodiments, the services are provided using a logical service forwarding plane that connects the edge forwarding element to a set of service nodes that each provide a service in the set of services. The service classification operation of some embodiments identifies a chain of multiple service operations that has to be performed on the data message. In some embodiments, identifying the chain of service operations includes selecting a service path to provide the multiple services. After selecting the service path, the data message is sent along the selected service path to have the services provided. The data message is returned to the edge forwarding element by a last service node in the service path that performs the last service operation and the edge forwarding element performs next hop forwarding on the data message.

An example method of orchestrating a software-defined (SD) network layer of a virtualized computing system is described, the virtualized computing system including a host cluster, a virtualization management server, and a network management server each connected to a physical network, the host cluster having hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts. The method includes receiving, at the virtualization management server, a declarative specification describing a proposed state of an SD network for the host cluster, deploying, by the virtualization management server, virtualized infrastructure components in the host cluster in response to the proposed state in the declarative specification, and deploying, by the virtualization management server in cooperation with the network management server, logical network services supported by the virtualized infrastructure components in response to the proposed state in the declarative specification.

A method of arranging the transmission of packet data in a system comprising a mobile terminal, a wireless local network and a mobile network that includes end-to-end service related parameters that are signalled via a separate signalling element. A resource authorization identifier is transmitted to the mobile network via the local network. Authorization is requested from the signalling element on the basis of the resource authorization identifier. A tunnel between the mobile terminal and the mobile network is bound to the end-to-end data flow of the mobile terminal on the basis of an authorization from the signalling element and tunnel identification information identifying the tunnel.