Patent ID: 8311045

Claim:
A system comprising: at least one processor; and non-transitory machine-readable media including instructions executable by the at least one processor, the instructions configured to cause the at least one processor to perform operations including: defining service coding information that are compatible with headers understood by nodes in a network, wherein the service coding information are configured to identify services applicable to a packet; receiving rules that are configured by a user; associating packet classes with the services based on the rules configured by the user; classifying a received packet into a packet class; determining service information for the received packet, wherein the service information includes service coding information indicating services applicable to the packet, service status information indicating whether the services have been applied to the packet and a service sequence information indicating an order in which the services should be performed; encoding a first set of bits included in a header of the packet in one or more sequences of bits based on the determined service information for the packet, wherein each sequence of bits includes a first portion indicating a service applicable to the packet and a second portion indicating service status information for an associated service and wherein an order of the sequences of bits indicate service sequence information; encoding a second set of bits included in the header based on packet classification information that includes classification status information indicating whether the packet has been classified, and information indicating the packet class associated with the packet, wherein the second set of bits is assigned based on the service coding information; providing a service to the packet based on information included in an encoded sequence of bits; and updating the service status information in the second portion of the associated sequence of bits to indicate that the service specified by the first portion of the sequence of bits has been provided to the packet.