Patent ID: 8812726

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform: receiving, from a service broker, a service insertion architecture service label and an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address of a first service node; receiving, from a network node that uses Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), an IPv4 packet requesting a service associated with the first service node; creating an IPv6 packet comprising the service insertion architecture service label in a Flow Label field of the IPv6 packet, the IPv6 address of the first service node in a destination address field of the IPv6 packet, and the IPv4 packet in a payload field of the IPv6 packet; forwarding the IPv6 packet to the first service node and causing the first service node to perform: extracting the IPv4 packet; performing the service using the IPv4 packet, resulting in creating a modified IPv4 packet; creating a second IPv6 packet comprising the service insertion architecture service label in a Flow Label field of the second IPv6 packet, a second IPv6 address of a second service node in a destination address field of the second IPv6 packet, and the modified IPv4 packet in a payload field of the second IPv6 packet; forwarding the second IPv6 packet to the second service node, or forwarding the second IPv6 packet to a service classifier, or dropping the second IPv6 packet.