Patent ID: 9634867
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: receiving, by a path computation element (PCE), a path computation request from a network controller to compute a network path for a source-destination pair in a service chain (SC) network, wherein the path computation request comprises at least one network routing constraint and a service function (SF) input associated with a plurality of SFs; computing, by the PCE, a plurality of network paths through the network for the source-destination pair according to the network routing constraint; selecting, by the PCE, a first network path from the plurality of network paths according to the SF input; selecting, by the PCE, a second network path from the plurality of network paths according to the SF input; and comparing, by the PCE, a number of hops in the first network path to the number of hops in the second network path; and responsive to a determination that the first network path comprises a fewer number of hops than the second network path, sending, by the PCE, a path computation response indicating the first network path in response to the received path computation request.