18287943. TRAFFIC STEERING FOR SERVICE FUNCTION CHAINING (SFC) IN NEXT GENERATION CELLULAR NETWORKS simplified abstract (Intel Corporation)

TRAFFIC STEERING FOR SERVICE FUNCTION CHAINING (SFC) IN NEXT GENERATION CELLULAR NETWORKS

Organization Name

Intel Corporation

Inventor(s)

Zongrui Ding of Portland OR (US)

Qian Li of Beaverton OR (US)

Sangeetha L. Bangolae of Portland OR (US)

Youn Hyoung Heo of Sunnyvale CA (US)

Abhijeet Ashok Kolekar of Hillsboro OR (US)

Ching-YU Liao of Hillsboro OR (US)

Thomas Luetzenkirchen of Taufkirchen (DE)

Sudeep K. Palat of Cheltenham (GB)

Alexandre Saso Stojanovski of Paris (FR)

Xiaopeng Tong of Beijing (CN)

TRAFFIC STEERING FOR SERVICE FUNCTION CHAINING (SFC) IN NEXT GENERATION CELLULAR NETWORKS - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 18287943 titled 'TRAFFIC STEERING FOR SERVICE FUNCTION CHAINING (SFC) IN NEXT GENERATION CELLULAR NETWORKS

Simplified Explanation: The patent application describes an apparatus and system for traffic steering for Service Function Chaining (SFC) using different protocol stacks for the user plane.

• Key Features and Innovation:

   - Utilizes separate SFC service layer and transport protocols.
   - Integrates transport protocols with SFC-related information.
   - Implements an SFC inherent Segment Routing (SR) protocol stack.

• Potential Applications:

   - Network traffic management in telecommunications.
   - Service function chaining in cloud computing environments.
   - Optimizing data flow in large-scale networks.

• Problems Solved:

   - Efficient traffic steering for Service Function Chaining.
   - Enhanced user plane functions identification.
   - Seamless communication between Service Functions.

• Benefits:

   - Improved network performance.
   - Enhanced scalability and flexibility.
   - Streamlined data transmission.

• Commercial Applications:

   - Telecom companies for network optimization.
   - Cloud service providers for efficient data routing.
   - Networking equipment manufacturers for product development.

• Prior Art:

   - Readers can explore prior patents related to traffic steering and Service Function Chaining protocols.

• Frequently Updated Research:

   - Stay updated on advancements in network traffic management and protocol optimization.

Questions about Traffic Steering for Service Function Chaining:

1. How does the use of different protocol stacks benefit Service Function Chaining?

  - The use of different protocol stacks allows for enhanced identification and communication between Service Functions, optimizing data flow.

2. What are the potential implications of implementing an SFC inherent Segment Routing protocol stack?

  - Implementing an SFC inherent Segment Routing protocol stack can lead to improved network performance and scalability, benefiting various industries.

Original Abstract Submitted

An apparatus and system for traffic Steering for Service Function Chaining (SFC) are described. Different protocol stacks may be used to enable SFC for the user plane. The protocol stacks include: separate SFC service layer and transport protocols in which transport uses identifiers of different enhanced user plane functions (eUPFs) and communication (Comm) Service Functions (SFs), transport protocols that are integrated with SFC-related information in which a General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol-user (GTP-U) header or a Segment Routing Header (SRH) has type-length-value (TLV) fields contains the SFC-related information, or an SFC inherent Segment Routing (SR) protocol stack in which first SFC-related information is carried as a locator: function field in Segment Routing Header (SRH) and second SFC-related information is contained in a type-length-value (TLV) field of the SRH, the first SFC-related information comprising a Comm SF and identification of SFs reachable from the Comm SF.