Per service egress link selection

Abstract

Exemplary embodiments provide techniques for specifying, on a per-service basis, (1) the peering router to which a particular network packet should be directed, and (2) the egress port that the packet should use when it leaves the peering router. One embodiment encapsulates an original packet inside an encapsulating packet. The encapsulating packet may specify, as a destination, a desired peering router in order to route the packet to a specific peering router and may specify an egress port identifier identifying a desired egress port on which the packet should be sent out from the peering router. At the peering router, the encapsulated packet may be decapsulated and the desired egress port may be retrieved. Thus, general network routing information may be overridden in favor of selected service-specific routes, allowing faster routes can be chosen for more important traffic or services.