Techniques are described for automatic discovery of two or more virtual service instances configured to apply a given service to a packet in a software-defined networking (SDN)/network functions virtualization (NFV) environment. Virtual service instances may be deployed as virtual entities hosted on one or more physical devices to offer individual services or chains of services from a service provider. The use of virtual service instances enables automatic scaling of the services on-demand. The techniques of this disclosure enable automatic discovery by a gateway network device of virtual service instances for a given service as load balancing entities. According to the techniques, the gateway network device automatically updates a load balancing group for the given service to include the discovered virtual service instances on which to load balance traffic for the service. In this way, the disclosed techniques provide auto-scaling and auto-discovery of services in an SDN/NFV environment.

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.

A network node in a service function chaining system receives a media stream from an endpoint device. The media stream is associated with a media session between the endpoint and at least one other endpoint. The network node determines a path for the media stream. The path includes an ordered list of functions to process the media stream. The network node determines a session identifier for the media stream and encapsulates the media stream with a header. The header includes an indication of the path and the session identifier.

A method includes: receiving an uplink data stream packet; determining a resource module used to process the uplink data stream packet and an identifier of the resource module; modifying the uplink data stream packet based on the identifier of the resource module; and forwarding a modified uplink data stream packet. After a downlink data stream packet is received, a resource module used to process the downlink data stream packet is determined based on an identifier of a resource module in the downlink data stream packet, where the identifier of the resource module in the downlink data stream packet is added after learning the identifier of the resource module in the uplink data stream packet. In this method, the uplink and downlink data stream packets are transmitted by using a same resource module, so that a success rate of communication transmission is effectively improved.

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.

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.

In general, the disclosure describes techniques for measuring edge-based quality of experience (QoE) metrics. For instance, a network device may construct a topological representation of a network, including indications of nodes and links connecting the nodes within the network. For each of the links, the network device may select a node device of the two node devices connected by the respective link to measure one or more QoE metrics for the respective link, with the non-selected node device not measuring the QoE metrics. In response to selecting the selected node device, the network device may receive a set of one or more QoE metrics for the respective link for data flows flowing from the selected node device to the non-selected node device. The network device may store the QoE metrics and determine counter QoE metrics for data flows flowing from the non-selected node device to the selected node device.

A packet forwarding method. In this method, a forwarding node receives a packet, obtains a target service resource status advertised by each service node in a plurality of service nodes, selects a target service node from the plurality of service nodes based on the target service resource status advertised by the service node, and forwards the packet to the target service node. In other words, the forwarding node can sense a service resource status advertised by the service node, and the service resource status can indicate a resource usage status of a service resource managed by the service node. An actual processing capability of the service node can be sensed based on the resource usage status.

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.

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.