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The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Patent No.:

US 11336572 B1

PDFFull Text
Date of Patent:
May. 17, 2022

Filed:

May. 12, 2017

Dynamic chain of service functions for processing network traffic in a virtual computing environment

Applicant:

Nicira, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);

Inventors:

Sami Boutros, Union City, CA (US);

Mani Kancherla, Cupertino, CA (US);

Dharmaraja Rajan, Miami, FL (US);

Philip Kippen, Fall City, WA (US);

Yashika Narang, Sunnyvale, CA (US);

Chidambareswaran Raman, Sunnyvale, CA (US);

Assignee:

Nicira, Inc., Pato Alto, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:

Habte Mered

Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04L 12/741 (2013.01); H04L 12/713 (2013.01); H04L 12/721 (2013.01); H04L 12/46 (2006.01); G06F 9/44 (2018.01); G06F 9/455 (2018.01); H04L 12/24 (2006.01); H04L 29/06 (2006.01); H04L 45/74 (2022.01); H04L 45/586 (2022.01); H04L 45/00 (2022.01); H04L 41/00 (2022.01); H04L 41/0893 (2022.01); H04L 41/12 (2022.01); H04L 41/5054 (2022.01); H04L 69/22 (2022.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H04L 45/74 (2013.01); G06F 9/44 (2013.01); G06F 9/45558 (2013.01); H04L 12/4633 (2013.01); H04L 41/00 (2013.01); H04L 41/0893 (2013.01); H04L 41/12 (2013.01); H04L 41/5054 (2013.01); H04L 45/586 (2013.01); H04L 45/72 (2013.01); G06F 2009/45595 (2013.01); H04L 69/22 (2013.01); H04L 2212/00 (2013.01);
Abstract

The technology disclosed herein enables a dynamic chain of virtual service functions for processing network traffic in a virtual computing environment. In a particular embodiment, a method includes providing a service chain policy to a virtual routing element connecting the respective service functions and determining an initial classification of a network packet entering the dynamic service chain. The initial classification indicates at least a first service function in a sequence of the service functions for processing the network packet. The method further includes providing a service chain policy to a virtual routing element connecting the respective service functions. After the network packet has been processed by a one service function in the sequence and before the virtual routing element passes the network packet to a next service function in the sequence, the method provides applying the service chain policy to the network packet in the virtual routing element to determine the next service function and directing the network packet from the virtual routing element to the next service function. The process continues till the packet passes through all service functions till it reaches its destination.

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