BGP Control Plane for the Network Service Header in Service Function Chaining

Abstract

This document describes the use of BGP as a control plane for networks that support service function chaining. The document introduces a new BGP address family called the "Service Function Chain (SFC) Address Family Identifier / Subsequent Address Family Identifier" (SFC AFI/SAFI) with two Route Types. One Route Type is originated by a node to advertise that it hosts a particular instance of a specified service function. This Route Type also provides "instructions" on how to send a packet to the hosting node in a way that indicates that the service function has to be applied to the packet. The other Route Type is used by a controller to advertise the paths of "chains" of service functions and give a unique designator to each such path so that they can be used in conjunction with the Network Service Header (NSH) defined in RFC 8300.

This document adopts the service function chaining architecture described in RFC 7665.

Abstract as published in the RFC, via rfc-editor.org.

What “Proposed Standard” means

An entry-level standards-track specification: stable, peer-reviewed and a solid basis for implementation, though it may still evolve before becoming an Internet Standard.