At&t Intellectual Property I, LP

University of Minnesota

Yang Zhang

Bo Han

Vijay Gopalakrishnan

Zhi-Li Zhang

Muhammad Bilal Anwer

Aman M Shaikh

Marco Platania

Joshua Reich

Systems and methods are disclosed for parallelizing service function chains. A method comprises receiving a sequential service function chain comprising a plurality of network functions, receiving a plurality of operations, determining at least two network functions are capable of being parallelized, aggregating operations of the plurality of operations associated with the at least two network functions into a network function segment, determining whether another network function is capable of being parallelized with the network function segment, based on the determining: aggregating an operation associated with the another network function into the network function segment when the another network function is capable of being parallelized with the network function segment, or pushing the network function segment as a completed segment of a hybrid service function chain when the another network function is not capable of being parallelized with the network function segment, and implementing the hybrid service function chain.

Controlling parallel data processing for service function chains

Systems, computer-readable media, and methods are disclosed for parallel data processing for service function chains with network functions spanning multiple servers. An example system includes a first server hosting a first network function of a service function chain, a second server hosting a second network function of the service function chain, a mirror function deployed in a first switch to replicate a plurality of packets received by the system and to send respective copies of the plurality of packets to the first network function and to at least one of the second network function and a third network function of the service function chain, and a merge function deployed in a second switch to merge respective outputs of the first network function and the at least one of the second network function and the third network function.

Parallel data processing for service function chains spanning multiple servers

The concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to a network-assisted Raft consensus protocol, referred to herein as 'NetRaft.' According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a system can include a plurality of servers operating in a server cluster, and a plurality of P4 switches corresponding to the plurality of servers. Each server of the plurality of servers can include a back-end that executes a complete Raft algorithm to perform leader election, log replication, and log commitment of a Raft consensus algorithm. Each P4 switch of the plurality of P4 switches can include a front-end that executes a partial Raft algorithm to perform the log replication and the log commitment of the Raft consensus algorithm. The back-end can maintain a complete state for responding to requests that cannot be fulfilled by the front-end. The requests can include read requests and/or write requests.

Network-assisted consensus protocol

The concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to parallelism for virtual network functions ('VNFs') in service function chains ('SFCs'). According to one aspect, a packet processing system can receive instructions to process, in parallel, at least a portion of a plurality of data packets associated with an SFC including a plurality of VNFs. The system can create a copy of at least the portion of the data packets. The system can send the copy of at least the portion of the data packets to at least two VNFs. The at least two VNFs can process, in parallel, the copy of at least the portion of the data packets. The system can receive, from the at least two VNFs, processed packets including the copy of at least the portion of the data packets and processed, in parallel, by the at least two VNFs. The system can combine the processed packets.

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Saint Paul, MN, United States of America

Yang Zhang