Techniques are described in which a centralized controller, such as a software defined networking (SDN) controller, constructs a service chain that includes a physical network function (PNF) between a bare metal server (BMS) and a virtual execution element (e.g., virtual machine or container), or in some instances a remote BMS, or vice-versa. In accordance with the techniques disclosed herein, the controller may construct an inter-network service chain that includes PNFs, or a combination of PNFs and virtualized network functions (VNFs). The controller may construct an inter-network service chain to steer traffic between a BMS and a virtual execution element or remote BMS through an inter-network service chain using Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) as an underlying transport technology through the service chain.

Embodiments provide a method, which can implement establishment of a network function virtualization (NFV) network service chain. The method includes obtaining, by a first communications unit, a service chain rule, where the service chain rule is used to indicate service processing that needs to be performed. The method also includes obtaining, according to the service chain rule, information about a service chain through which a service route passes, where the information about the service chain is used to indicate information about a virtualized network function (VNF) through which the service route passes, and the VNF is configured for the service processing; and sending a route and resource configuration request message, where the route and resource configuration request message carries the information about the service chain, to request to perform, according to the information about the service chain, route and resource configuration for the VNF included in the service chain.

A method for synchronizing topology information in a service function chain (SFC) network, where the SFC network includes at least one classifier (CF) and at least one service function forwarder (SFF). The method includes that a first network element in the at least two routing network elements establishes a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) connection to at least one second network element other than the first network element in the at least two routing network elements, where the first network element is any one of the at least two routing network elements, and the first network element sends a first BGP update message to the at least one second network element, where the first BGP update message includes topology information of the first network element such that the at least one second network element obtains the topology information of the first network element.

An embodiment of a semiconductor package apparatus may include technology to generate first name information corresponding to data and/or content for an autonomous vehicle to represent vehicular application information based on requirements of the vehicular application information, and generate second name information corresponding to a chain of functions for an autonomous vehicle based on the requirements of the vehicular application information. Another embodiment may include technology to identify a cluster head for a cluster of autonomous vehicles, utilize the cluster head to assist in-networking caching of data and/or functions, utilize the cluster head to coordinate discovery of availability of functions, data cache resources, and/or compute resources in a proximity of the cluster head, and utilize the cluster head to coordinate producer mobility and/or consumer mobility. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

A mechanism is disclosed for implementing conditional commands carried by network data packets. A data flow including a data packet is received. The data packet includes a conditional command. A condition and a command are obtained from the conditional command. The mechanism determines that the condition is satisfied. Based on the determination that the condition is satisfied, the command is executed to alter handling of the data flow, alter handling of the data packet, or alter a context for the data flow.

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.

A network device receives a data packet including a source address and a destination address. The network device drops the data packet before it reaches the destination address and generates an error message indicating that the data packet has been dropped. The network device encapsulates the error message with a segment routing header comprising a list of segments. The first segment of the list of segments in the segment routing header identifies a remote server, and at least one additional segment is an instruction for handling the error message. The network device sends the encapsulated error message to the remote server based on the first segment of the segment routing header.

In one embodiment, an electronic device maintains one or more tunnel-based overlays for a communication network. The communication network includes two or more physical provider networks. The device maintains a mapping between a particular application and the one or more overlays for the communication network. The device adjusts the mapping between the particular application and the one or more overlays for the communication network. The device causes one or more routers in the communication network to route traffic for the particular application according to the adjusted mapping between the application and the one or more overlays for the communication network.

There is provided a method performed by a session management function (SMF) node of a network for establishing a PFCP session. A plurality of service functions (SFs) are selected (102) to connect in a service function chain for handling the PFCP session. Each of the plurality of SFs is capable of activating a feature of the PFCP session and is supported by a user plane function (UPF) node. The selection is based on a load of each of the plurality of SFs. For each UPF node that supports one or more of the selected plurality of SFs, transmission of a request is initiated (104) to the UPF node to establish the PFCP session with the UPF node. The request comprises an indication of the one or more of the selected plurality of SFs that the UPF node supports.

There is provided a method performed by a session management function (SMF) node of a network for establishing a PFCP session. A plurality of service functions (SFs) are selected (102) to connect in a service function chain for handling the PFCP session. Each of the plurality of SFs is capable of activating a feature of the PFCP session and is supported by a user plane function (UPF) node. The selection is based on a load of each of the plurality of SFs. For each UPF node that supports one or more of the selected plurality of SFs, transmission of a request is initiated (104) to the UPF node to establish the PFCP session with the UPF node. The request comprises an indication of the one or more of the selected plurality of SFs that the UPF node supports.