Nec Corporation

Alessio Silvestro

Fabian Schneider

Roberto Bifulco

Dirk Kutscher

A method for introducing in-network services in an end-to-end communication path between two hosts includes: providing at least one middlebox entity and performing a registration procedure that includes registering the in-network services together with their respective service level agreements at the at least one middlebox entity; by at least one of the two hosts, sending a subscription for the in-network services to the at least one middlebox entity together with a policy list containing at least host-specific security requirements; by the at least one middlebox entity, evaluating potential conflicts between the host-specific security requirements and the service level agreements of the in-network services, and, in case no conflicts are detected, authenticating the in-network services; and inserting the authenticated in-network services within the end-to-end communication path and starting encrypted communication between the two hosts.

Method and system for introducing in-network services in an end-to-end communication path

A method for service function chaining within an end-to-end path of a network connection between a source and destination node includes: executing, for a defined service function chain including an ordered sequence of network service functions, an address resolution process that translates names of the network service functions of the defined service function chain into their corresponding IP addresses. The address resolution process is performed at a name server of the destination node by a sequence of name server queries sent in succession to respective name servers of each of the selected network service functions of the defined service function chain in accordance with their order. Each of the name server queries is answered by a response from a name server of the respective network service function that includes IP addresses of selected instances of a respective network service function chosen by the respective name server according to predefined criteria.

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Bologna, Italy

Alessio Silvestro