Disclosed are devices, systems and methods for load balancing and operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) in service function chaining using the multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) forwarding plane. In some implementations, a packet processing method includes processing a network packet comprising a plurality of labels based on presence of an indicator label in the plurality of labels such that in case that the indicator label is present in the network packet, the indicator label is used to determine a first destination of a payload of the network packet, and in case that the indicator label is not present in the network packet, the payload is passed to a second destination selected based on a service function indicator in the plurality of labels.

Techniques are disclosed for identifying faulty links in a virtualized computing environment. Network path latency information is received for one or more network paths in the networked computing environment. Based on the network path latency information, a probable presence of a faulty component is determined. In response to the determination, physical links for a network path associated with the probable faulty component are identified. Information indicative of likely sources of the probable faulty component is received from multiple hosts of the networked computing environment. Based on the identified physical links and information, a faulty component is determined.

A service function chain including service functions which process user plane packets is controlled by providing (S21) a shared context comprising rules and policies for processing the user plane packets, the shared context being shared between the service functions of the service function chain, reading (S22) the shared context, and adjusting (S23) traffic flow across the service function chain based on the rules and policies associated with the read shared context.

Presented herein are techniques for use in a network environment that includes one or more service zones, each service zone including at least one instance of an in-line application service to be applied to network traffic and one or more routers to direct network traffic to the at least one service, and a route target being assigned to a unique service zone to serve as a community value for route import and export between routers of other service zones, destination networks or source networks via a control protocol. An edge router in each service zone or destination network advertises routes by its destination network prefix tagged with its route target. A service chain is created by importing and exporting of destination network prefixes by way of route targets at edge routers of the service zones or source networks.

There is disclosed in one example a method of a work node synchronously load balancing to a multi-node service having an expected maximum of n work nodes, including: provisioning a flow table having m bucket groups, m≥1, the bucket groups including n slots each; enumerating a static integer self-identification id.sub.0; initializing the flow table with id.sub.0 in each slot; performing a discovery iteration, including: discovering a peer device; enumerating a static integer identification id.sub.x for the peer device; assigning id.sub.x to each slot corresponding to a home position for the peer device; and load balancing slots not assigned to a home position according to a deterministic algorithm; and discovering additional nodes and performing discovery iteration for the additional nodes.

An apparatus including at least one processing circuitry, and at least one memory for storing instructions to be executed by the processing circuitry, wherein the at least one memory and the instructions are configured to, with the at least one processing circuitry, cause the apparatus at least: to acquire generic service policy rules to be applied to a communication of a service data flow in a communication network, wherein the generic service policy rules are to be used for routing a service data flow to and within at least one external service function or at least one external service function chain; and to provide, to an external service function providing side, the acquired generic service policy rules as information related to an intended usage of at least one external service function or at least one external service function chain in a service data flow communicated in a communication network.

There is disclosed in one example a method of a work node synchronously load balancing to a multi-node service having an expected maximum of n work nodes, including: provisioning a flow table having m bucket groups, m≥1, the bucket groups including n slots each; enumerating a static integer self-identification id.sub.0; initializing the flow table with id.sub.0 in each slot; performing a discovery iteration, including: discovering a peer device; enumerating a static integer identification id.sub.x for the peer device; assigning id.sub.x to each slot corresponding to a home position for the peer device; and load balancing slots not assigned to a home position according to a deterministic algorithm; and discovering additional nodes and performing discovery iteration for the additional nodes.

This application provides a segment routing method and apparatus. The method includes: An ingress routing device receives a packet sent by a terminal device; and obtains a functional program corresponding to the packet of the terminal device. The functional program is used to indicate one or more sequential computing processing steps/instructions, service processing steps/instructions, or network processing steps/instructions, the functional program includes one or more sequentially placed function identifiers FID, and each FID is used to represent one computing processing step/instruction, service processing step/instruction, or network processing step/instruction.

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.

A configuration of a service of a cloud computing system is rendered in a user interface of an electronic display, according to a discovery chain generated by a networking tool using a service discovery function to establish the configuration. The configuration includes one or more of a router, a splitter, and/or a resolver, each having one or more configuration files that are represented as a graphical element within a graphical representation of the one or more of the router, the splitter, and/or the resolver. The configuration further includes data traffic routes between pairs of the configuration files, each being represented in the UI as a line between each pair of configuration files, where each line is rendered in the UI so as to avoid crossing over any graphical element that represents a configuration file.