Patent ID: 9686181
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: identifying a failed service function at a service node in a service chain, said service chain defining a set of service nodes hosting service functions and an order for applying said service functions, each of said service functions identified as critical or non-critical at a controller in communication with said service function chain; receiving a packet at the service node comprising the failed service function, the packet comprising a flag located in a network service header or segment routing header and identifying an action to be taken on the packet, wherein the flag is set based on whether the failed service function is one of the service functions identified as critical or one of the service functions identified as non-critical; and processing the packet at the service node according to the flag; wherein said service functions identified as critical comprise service functions critical to network traffic flow and said service functions identified as non-critical comprise informational service functions and are defined as critical or not critical in the controller.