Patent ID: 9444675
Filing Date: 2016-09-13
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: in a network comprising a plurality of network nodes each configured to apply one or more service functions to traffic that passes the respective network nodes in a service path, receiving at a particular network node among the respective nodes of the service path an indication of a failure or degradation of a service function or application applied to traffic at the particular network node, wherein the service path defines a specific order in which the traffic passes the respective network nodes; generating at the particular network node data descriptive of the failure or degradation; determining at the particular network node a previous service hop network node in the specific order of the service path; identifying a location of the previous service hop network node by examining a context header in a service header in which packets of the traffic for the service path are encapsulated, the context header allocated to contain previous service hop location information and which is populated by each of the respective network nodes along the service path so that the context header contains information identifying the location of the previous service hop network node at any point along the service path; and communicating the data descriptive of the failure or degradation from the particular network node to the previous service hop network node.