US 12,255,812 B1
Service chaining among devices of interconnected topology
Jacopo Pianigiani, Cupertino, CA (US); Vivekananda Shenoy, Singapore (SG); Ankur Tandon, San Francisco, CA (US); Atul S Moghe, San Jose, CA (US); Suresh K Balineni, Milpitas, CA (US); Tong Jiang, Fremont, CA (US); Kiran N. Kasim, Bangalore (IN); and Sridevi JeevaRaj, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to Juniper Networks, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Filed by Juniper Networks, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Filed on Jun. 22, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/339,851.
Application 18/339,851 is a continuation of application No. 17/248,257, filed on Jan. 15, 2021, granted, now 11,722,408.
Application 17/248,257 is a continuation of application No. 16/235,993, filed on Dec. 28, 2018, granted, now 10,897,420, issued on Jan. 19, 2021.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04L 45/00 (2022.01); H04L 12/46 (2006.01); H04L 45/586 (2022.01); H04L 45/745 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 45/54 (2013.01) [H04L 12/4641 (2013.01); H04L 45/586 (2013.01); H04L 45/745 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A service device operable to be communicatively coupled between a first network switch and a second network switch of a data center, the service device comprising:
a service unit implemented in circuitry and configured to apply a physical network layer function (PNF) to network packets; and
a processing system comprising one or more processors implemented in circuitry, the processing system being configured to:
receive, from a controller, configuration data representing a set of service virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) tables for diverting network traffic to the service unit for application of at the PNF, wherein the set of service VRF tables includes a first service VRF table specific to a first tenant of the data center, the first service VRF table for forwarding inter-tenant network traffic to the service unit from the first network switch, and a second service VRF table specific to a second tenant of the data center for forwarding the inter-tenant network traffic from the service unit to the second network switch, the second service VRF table being separate from the first service VRF table;
based on the configuration data from the controller, forward the inter-tenant network traffic received from the first network switch to the service unit using the first service VRF table to determine an interface by which to direct the inter-tenant network traffic to the service unit; and
based on the configuration data from the controller, forward the inter-tenant network traffic from the service unit to the second network switch using the second service VRF table to determine an interface by which to output the inter-tenant network traffic to reach the second network switch,
wherein the inter-tenant network traffic comprises network traffic originating from first one or more server devices associated with a first tenant of the data center and destined for second one or more server devices associated with a second tenant of the data center.