Patent ID: 11929906
Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 7:
8. A head-end router comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving input from a network operator that causes service software of a service to be installed on the head-end router, wherein the service software configures the head-end router to establish network paths with other devices running the service software;
generating, according to a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), an advertisement message indicating the service software that is installed on the head-end router and a path associated with reaching communicating with the head-end router using the service, the BGP protocol providing BGP path attributes associated with the path indicated in the advertisement message, the BGP path attributes being sets of elements encoded as Type-Length-Values (TLVs);
populating the advertisement message with a service request TLV that includes information for installing the service software on a tail-end router, the information including:
a service identifier that indicates the service software that is being requested to be installed on the tail-end router such that the tail-end router can establish the path; and
service-location information indicating a location from which the tail-end router obtains the service; and

sending the advertisement message that includes the service request TLV to the tail-end router.