A method comprising: receiving, at a Bit Index Explicit Replication, BIER, replicator node that is configured to implement a BIER protocol, from a data source that implements an application layer micro-service, a multicast stream packet identifying a service-level multicast group address of a service-level multicast group; replicating, via the BIER replicator node, the multicast stream packet according to the BIER protocol; transmitting, via the BIER replicator node, two or more replicated multicast stream packets to two or more BIER receiver nodes that are configured to implement BIER; transmitting, via the two or more BIER receiver nodes, the two or more replicated multicast stream packets to two or more receivers ; receiving an In-situ Operations, Administration, and Maintenance, iOAM, header that comprises at least one of an identifier of a replicator policy or a definition of a replicator policy expressed in a symbolic language, at the BIER replicator node or one or more of a plurality of other BIER replicator nodes; and at a particular one of the BIER replicator node or the plurality of other BIER replicator nodes, performing at least one of: based on the identifier of the replicator policy, retrieving a pre-defined packet replication policy that matches the identifier, and executing the pre-defined packet replication policy to dynamically adjust packet processing behavior of the particular one of the BIER replicator nodes; or parsing the definition of the replicator policy in the symbolic language to yield a new packet replication policy, and executing the new packet replication policy to dynamically adjust packet processing behavior of the particular one of the BIER replicator nodes. receiving, at a Bit Index Explicit Replication, BIER, replicator node that is configured to implement a BIER protocol, from a data source that implements an application layer micro-service, a multicast stream packet identifying a service-level multicast group address of a service-level multicast group; replicating, via the BIER replicator node, the multicast stream packet according to the BIER protocol; transmitting, via the BIER replicator node, two or more replicated multicast stream packets to two or more BIER receiver nodes that are configured to implement BIER; transmitting, via the two or more BIER receiver nodes, the two or more replicated multicast stream packets to two or more receivers ; receiving an In-situ Operations, Administration, and Maintenance, iOAM, header that comprises at least one of an identifier of a replicator policy or a definition of a replicator policy expressed in a symbolic language, at the BIER replicator node or one or more of a plurality of other BIER replicator nodes; and at a particular one of the BIER replicator node or the plurality of other BIER replicator nodes, performing at least one of: based on the identifier of the replicator policy, retrieving a pre-defined packet replication policy that matches the identifier, and executing the pre-defined packet replication policy to dynamically adjust packet processing behavior of the particular one of the BIER replicator nodes; or parsing the definition of the replicator policy in the symbolic language to yield a new packet replication policy, and executing the new packet replication policy to dynamically adjust packet processing behavior of the particular one of the BIER replicator nodes. based on the identifier of the replicator policy, retrieving a pre-defined packet replication policy that matches the identifier, and executing the pre-defined packet replication policy to dynamically adjust packet processing behavior of the particular one of the BIER replicator nodes; or parsing the definition of the replicator policy in the symbolic language to yield a new packet replication policy, and executing the new packet replication policy to dynamically adjust packet processing behavior of the particular one of the BIER replicator nodes. <EOS>