Let us understand why an SFC Orchestrator is needed. Service function chaining is an emerging standard for varied use cases, whether network slicing in a 5G context or multi-site SDWAN deployments, or edge computing. However, with the increasing complexity of these networks, orchestration needs to realize that these service function chains have also been increasing. Indeed, orchestration is no longer static. Instead, the customers expect dynamic management and orchestration followed by self-healing capabilities to handle changes in the network. HSC’s SFC Orchestrator (SFC-O) is an ETSI-MANO-compliant orchestrator, leveraging ETSI OSM for resource orchestration and a P4-based SDN controller for network orchestration to create an end-to-end service function chain. Additionally, the SFC-O offers IETF standard-compliant northbound APIs. Consequently, it allows customers to configure the slice according to their use cases and QoS requirements. Furthermore, it also uses a P4 runtime environment in a southbound direction, enabling user-defined forwarding logic on different network entities.

Key Features

• SFC Orchestrator is compliant to ETSI-MANO NFV standards
• Supports IETF compliant northbound APIs for L2/L3 VPN
• Network configuration using P4 based software-defined Controller
• Enhanced scalability and traffic engineering optimizations using SRv6 based provisioning
• Dynamic discovery and path computation based on routing protocols and SNMP
• Flexibility to choose different path computation algorithms between two sites/devices
• Self-healing capabilities to handle node/link failures
• Single click automation suite setup for Lab testing on OpenStack based virtualized environment
• Possible to integrate with existing P4 Programmable switches

Key Benefits

As IoT and edge computing technologies continue to advance due to their flexibility and diversity of services, the implementation of SFC Orchestration has expedited. Owing to the surge in the number of edge devices and the increase in the data volume of IoT scenarios, there are higher requirements for the transmission security of privacy information.

• More scalable and flexible networking using SDN controller based on P4 language and SRv6
• Easily customizable to additional IETF based service/network models.