Intel corporation (20240214282). TRAFFIC STEERING FOR SERVICE FUNCTION CHAINING (SFC) IN NEXT GENERATION CELLULAR NETWORKS simplified abstract

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 20240214282 titled 'TRAFFIC STEERING FOR SERVICE FUNCTION CHAINING (SFC) IN NEXT GENERATION CELLULAR NETWORKS

The patent application describes an apparatus and system for traffic steering for service function chaining (SFC) using different protocol stacks to enable SFC for the user plane.

• Separate SFC service layer and transport protocols are utilized, with transport using identifiers of different Enhanced User Plane Functions (EUPFs) and Communication Service Functions (SFS).
• Transport protocols are integrated with SFC-related information, such as using a General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol-User (GTP-U) header or a Segment Routing Header (SRH) with Type-Length-Value (TLV) fields containing the SFC-related information.
• An SFC inherent Segment Routing (SR) protocol stack is employed, where the first SFC-related information is carried as a locator: function field in the SRH, and the second SFC-related information is contained in a TLV field of the SRH.

Potential Applications: - Network traffic management - Service function chaining in telecommunications - Quality of Service (QoS) optimization

Problems Solved: - Efficient traffic steering for service function chaining - Enhanced user plane function identification - Seamless integration of SFC-related information in transport protocols

Benefits: - Improved network performance - Enhanced user experience - Streamlined service function chaining implementation

Commercial Applications: This technology can be applied in telecommunications networks, data centers, and cloud computing environments to optimize traffic flow, enhance service delivery, and improve overall network efficiency.

Questions about Traffic Steering for Service Function Chaining:

1. How does the integration of different protocol stacks improve service function chaining efficiency?

  - By utilizing separate SFC service layer and transport protocols, the system can efficiently steer traffic for service function chaining, enhancing network performance.

2. What are the key benefits of using an SFC inherent Segment Routing protocol stack?

  - The SFC inherent Segment Routing protocol stack allows for the seamless integration of SFC-related information, improving the identification and routing of service functions in the network.

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.