Patent ID: 9467382
Filing Date: 2016-10-11
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: receiving, at a network element, data traffic to be processed by a service chain that specifies an ordered sequence of service pools including a first service pool and second service pool, wherein each service pool comprises a plurality of network services; determining that the first service pool has a capacity different than a capacity of the second service pool, wherein capacity of a given service pool is based on an accumulation of capacities of the plurality of network services in the given service pool; associating dynamically instantiated network services with the first service pool or removing network services from the first service pool until the capacity of the first service pool is substantially equal to the capacity of the second service pool; determining a network service from the first service pool to be applied to the data traffic; and forwarding the data traffic to the network service in the first service pool.