CN111464443B

CN111464443B - Message forwarding method, device, equipment and storage medium based on service function chain

Info

Publication number: CN111464443B
Application number: CN202010162251.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 董先存; 吴焕政; 马肖男
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Hangzhou Information Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Hangzhou Information Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-03-10
Filing date: 2020-03-10
Publication date: 2022-06-28
Anticipated expiration: 2040-03-10
Also published as: CN111464443A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of network communication, and discloses a message forwarding method, a message forwarding device, message forwarding equipment and a message forwarding storage medium based on a service function chain. A message forwarding method based on a service function chain comprises the following steps: receiving a message forwarded by a classifier, and identifying a Service Function Chain (SFC) according to a source address of the message, wherein the source address of the message is preset as a virtual address mapped by the SFC for bearing the message; and forwarding the message to the next hop service function SFI node according to the address information of the next hop service function SFI node set by the SFC. In the invention, the source address of the message is set as the virtual address mapped by the SFC bearing the message, and the flow guide of the SFC is completed in the forwarding equipment according to the virtual address, so that the method has good flexibility, can be compatible with the existing network equipment, has good old effect on the existing SFI equipment, and effectively reduces the construction cost of the SFC.

Description

Message forwarding method, device, equipment and storage medium based on service function chain

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of network communication, in particular to a message forwarding method, a message forwarding device, message forwarding equipment and a storage medium based on a service function chain.

Background

When data packets are transmitted in a network, the data packets need to pass through various Service Function Instances (SFIs) such as firewalls, IDS/IPS, encryption/decryption cards, load balancers, wan accelerators, etc., in addition to conventional forwarding devices such as routers or switches, to ensure that the network can provide users with secure, fast, and stable network services as expected. The data packet is sequentially forwarded to each SFI device node in a specific order, and a data packet transmission path formed by connecting each SFI device in series is a Service Function Chaining (SFC).

The inventor finds that the technical scheme for data drainage based on the service function chain in the prior art has at least the following problems:

(1) drainage protocol for cascading SFI: based on the physical topology of the forwarding network, the SFI is connected in series to the transmission path of the message, and the scheme is limited by the physical topology, so that the flexibility of the SFC is lost;

(2) drainage scheme for BGP/policy routing: the scheme is used for a scene of SFI side-hanging deployment, firstly, drainage is carried out in a BGP 'deception' mode, data messages are drained to the SFI, and then the data messages are reinjected in a policy routing mode. The scheme is also limited by physical topology, and the SFI types and the sequence of the message paths are difficult to be adjusted in a fine-grained and dynamic mode, so that the expansibility and the flexibility are poor;

(3) NSH protocol: in the RFC8300(Network Service Header, NSH) of the IETF, a special NSH Header format is defined, which can help a user to dynamically create and deploy an SFC, but requires the chip upgrade support of an SFI device, or in the NSH-proxy scheme, the NSH-proxy completes the processing of an NSH message, so as to solve the problem that the SFI cannot identify the NSH message, but cannot be well compatible with the existing device, which results in ineffectiveness, and increase the construction cost and the operation and maintenance cost of the SFC;

(4) extended Vxlan scheme: the method comprises the steps that a reserved field of 2-4 bytes of a Vxlan head is filled as a Service Path ID, a Service chain number is recorded and used for uniquely determining an SFC, and although the scheme is realized based on a standard Vxlan protocol, VTEP (Vxlan Tunnel End Point) equipment also needs to be redeveloped to realize the support of the extension;

(5) a hop-by-hop drainage scheme: although the scheme is simple to implement, a large amount of table entry resources are required to be consumed for multiple times of full recognition and classification, the consumed table entry resources are not in direct proportion to the number of SFCs, but are in direct proportion to the number of services borne by the SFCs, so that the system capacity is reduced, and the performance bottleneck of the SFCs is often caused by frequent calling of the classifiers.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention aims to provide a message forwarding method, a message forwarding device, message forwarding equipment and a message forwarding storage medium based on a service function chain, so that the problems of poor flexibility and difficulty in SFI (Small form factor input) reuse in the prior art can be solved.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a packet forwarding method based on a service function chain, including: receiving a message forwarded by a classifier, and identifying a Service Function Chain (SFC) according to a source address of the message, wherein the source address of the message is preset as a virtual address mapped by the SFC for bearing the message; and setting the address information of the next hop service function SFI node according to the SFC, and forwarding the message to the next hop service function SFI node.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a message forwarding method based on the service function chain, which comprises the following steps: determining the SFC for bearing the message; and setting the source address of the message as the virtual address mapped by the SFC, and forwarding the message to the SFF.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a message forwarding apparatus based on a service function chain, including: the receiving module is used for receiving the message forwarded by the classifier and identifying the Service Function Chain (SFC) according to the source address of the message, wherein the source address of the message is preset as a virtual address mapped by the SFC for bearing the message; and the first forwarding module is used for setting the address information of the next-hop SFI node according to the SFC and forwarding the message to the next-hop SFI node.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a message forwarding apparatus based on a service function chain, including: the classification module is used for determining the SFC of the bearing message; and the second forwarding module is used for setting the source address of the message as the virtual address mapped by the SFC and forwarding the message to the SFF.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides an electronic device, including: at least one processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; wherein the memory stores instructions executable by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to perform the service function chain based message forwarding method as described above.

Embodiments of the present invention further provide a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the message forwarding method based on the service function chain is implemented as above.

Compared with the prior art, the method and the device have the advantages that the source address and the virtual address of the message are mapped, the forwarding device can identify the SFC according to the virtual address so as to achieve flow guiding, and the existing device does not need to be changed, so that the existing device can be fully utilized; and because the forwarding equipment can identify the SFC according to the virtual address, a plurality of SFC messages returned by the same node equipment can be well distinguished, so that the same node equipment can be shared by a plurality of SFCs, and the flexibility is good.

In addition, after forwarding the packet to the next hop service function SFI node, the method further includes: receiving a message forwarded by an SFI node, wherein the source address of the message forwarded by the SFI node is set as the address information of the SFI node, and the destination address of the message forwarded by the SFI node is set as a virtual address; and identifying the SFC according to the destination address, setting the source address of the message forwarded by the SFI node as a virtual address, setting the address information of the next hop node according to the service function chain SFC, and forwarding the message forwarded by the SFI node to the next hop node. By dynamically setting the source address of the message carried by the SFC as the virtual address mapped by the SFC in the SFF equipment, the forwarding equipment can complete the identification of the SFC according to the virtual address so as to realize the flow guiding without changing the existing equipment, thereby fully utilizing the existing equipment; and because the forwarding equipment can identify the SFC according to the virtual address, a plurality of SFC messages returned by the same node equipment can be well distinguished, so that the same node equipment can be shared by a plurality of SFCs, and the flexibility is good.

In addition, the next hop node is an SFI node or an SFF node. Because the virtual address uniquely identifies the SFC, the intermediate SFF equipment only needs to conduct SFC drainage according to the virtual address, thereby supporting the drainage of the cross-routing node, and needing not to conduct multiple times of full identification and classification on the message, reducing the consumption of message forwarding on the entry resources, and improving the capacity and the compatibility of the system.

In addition, the next hop node is an SFF node, and after forwarding the packet forwarded by the SFI node to the next hop node, the method further includes: receiving a message forwarded by the SFF node; and identifying the SFC according to the source address of the message forwarded by the SFF node, setting the address information of the next-hop SFI node according to the SFC, and forwarding the message forwarded by the SFF node to the next-hop SFI node.

In addition, the next hop node is an SFF node, and the forwarding of the packet forwarded by the SFI node to the next hop node specifically includes: and forwarding the message to the next-hop SFF node through an IP tunneling technology.

Drawings

One or more embodiments are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, which correspond to the figures in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and which are not to scale unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a message forwarding method based on a service function chain according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a message forwarding path of a message forwarding method based on a service function chain according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a message forwarding method based on a service function chain according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a message forwarding apparatus based on a service function chain according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a message forwarding apparatus based on a service function chain according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention more apparent, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that numerous technical details are set forth in order to provide a better understanding of the present application in various embodiments of the present invention. However, the technical solution claimed in the present application can be implemented without these technical details and various changes and modifications based on the following embodiments. The following embodiments are divided for convenience of description, and should not constitute any limitation to the specific implementation manner of the present invention, and the embodiments may be mutually incorporated and referred to without contradiction.

The first embodiment of the present invention relates to a message forwarding method based on a service function chain, and the core of the present embodiment is that the method includes: receiving a message forwarded by a classifier, and identifying a Service Function Chain (SFC) according to a source address of the message, wherein the source address of the message is preset as a virtual address mapped by the SFC carrying the message; and setting address information of a next hop service function SFI node according to the SFC, and forwarding the message to the next hop service function SFI node. The source addresses of all messages borne by the SFC are preset as the virtual address which uniquely identifies the SFC, the virtual address and the SFC have a mapping relation, and the intermediate SFF equipment completes the flow guiding of the messages borne by the SFC according to the virtual address, so that the SFC is not limited by physical topology and has good flexibility; and a header field does not need to be added or extended in the message, so that the method can be well compatible with the existing network equipment, and the construction cost of the SFC is effectively reduced.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of the present embodiment, fig. 2 is a message transmission path diagram of the present embodiment, and the following describes in detail a message forwarding method based on a service function chain according to the present embodiment with reference to fig. 1 and fig. 2, and it should be noted that the method provided by the present embodiment is applied to an SFF device.

Step S101, the SFF receives the message forwarded by the classifier, and identifies the service function chain SFC according to the source address of the message, wherein the source address of the message is preset as the virtual address mapped by the SFC carrying the message.

Before the message is forwarded to the SFF equipment, in an SFC classifier, according to classification rules such as seven-tuple or application layer logic and the like, the source mac address of all messages needing to be carried by the SFCn is modified into a virtual address SFCn _ mac uniquely mapped by the SFCn. It should be noted that the maintenance of the mapping relationship may be implemented, but not limited to, by an sdn (software Defined network) controller, where the virtual address SFCn _ mac is any globally unique mac address, and may be, but not limited to, any unallocated mac address applied by a vendor from IEEE.

Specifically, when receiving a packet forwarded by the classifier, the accessed packet is identified by using "first input port" + "SrcMAC ═ SFCn _ mac" as an identification rule. Referring to fig. 2, a packet carried by the SFC1 is forwarded from the classifier to the first service function forwarding device SFF1, for the SFF1, a first input port of the packet is port No. 1 where the SFF1 is connected to the classifier, the packet is accessed from port No. 1 of the service function forwarding device SFF1, since the source address SrcMAC of the packet is preset to the virtual address SFC1_ mac mapped by the SFC1 carrying the packet, the service function chain SFC1 carrying the packet can be identified according to the virtual address SFC1_ mac of the packet, and the packet is forwarded according to the SFC 1.

And step S102, setting address information of a next hop service function SFI node according to the SFC, and forwarding the message to the next hop service function SFI node.

Specifically, the mac "+" executing "setDstMAC as the first SFI is rolled out from the port where the first SFI is connected". After the service function chain SFC carrying the message is identified on the SFF, the destination address of the next hop node for forwarding the message is obtained according to the SFC, the destination address of the message is set as the mac address of the next hop node SFI, and the message is forwarded to the SFI equipment through a port in communication connection with the SFI equipment.

With reference to fig. 2, after accessing the packet forwarded by the classifier through the port 1, the SFF1 identifies, according to the source address SFC1_ mac of the packet, that the data service chain carrying the packet is the SFC1, and forwards the packet to the first SFI according to the SFC1, where the first SFI is the first SFI node forwarded after the SFF receives the packet, in this embodiment, the first SFI forwarded after the SFF1 receives the packet of the classifier is the SFI1, and the SFI1 is used as the next hop node of the packet on the SFF, which specifically includes: and setting the destination address of the message as the mac address of the next hop node SFI1, and forwarding the message to the SFI1 equipment from the port connected with the SFI1 and the SFF1 equipment, namely forwarding the message to the SFI1 through the port No. 2.

In this embodiment, the SFI device is a firewall, IDS/IPS, encryption and decryption card, load balancer, wan accelerator, etc., and the SFF device may be, but is not limited to, a standard openflow white-box device or a policy router.

The source addresses of all the messages borne by the SFC are preset as the virtual addresses which uniquely identify the SFC, the SFC bearing the messages can be identified in the intermediate SFF equipment according to the virtual addresses, and then the flow guiding of the messages borne by the SFC is completed, so that the SFC is not limited by physical topology, a header field does not need to be added or extended in the messages, the flexibility is good, the existing network equipment can be well compatible, and the construction cost of the SFC is effectively reduced.

It can be understood that, when the packet needs to be forwarded to multiple SFI nodes via the SFF device, after step S102, the method may further include: receiving a message forwarded by an SFI node, wherein the source address of the message forwarded by the SFI node is set as the address information of the SFI node, and the destination address of the message forwarded by the SFI node is set as a virtual address; and identifying the SFC according to the destination address, setting the source address of the message forwarded by the SFI node as a virtual address, setting the address information of the next hop node according to the service function chain SFC, and forwarding the message forwarded by the SFI node to the next hop node.

Specifically, when the next hop node is the SFI node, on the SFF device, with "the port connected by the previous SFI" + "DstMAC ═ SFCn _ mac" as the identification rule, "setSrcMAC as SFCn _ mac" + "setDstMAC as the next SFI" + "is performed to be transferred out from the port connected by the next SFI". Continuing to refer to fig. 2, after the packet is forwarded to the SFI1 node through the SFF1 device, the packet needs to be forwarded to the SFI2 node, and the SFF1 device receives the packet returned by the SFI1 node from the port No. 2, where a source address of the packet returned by the SFI1 node is set as a mac address of the SFI1 by the SFI1, and a destination address of the packet returned by the SFI1 node is set as the virtual address SFC1_ mac by the SFI 1. In the SFF1 device, the SFC1 carrying the received message returned by the SFI1 node is identified according to the destination address SFC1_ mac of the message, the source address of the message is set to the virtual address SFC1_ mac mapped by the SFC1 carrying the message, and the destination address of the next hop node for forwarding the message is set to the address information of the SFI2 according to the SFC1, and the message is forwarded to the SFI2 from the port, that is, port No. 3, where the SFI2 is connected with the SFF1 device.

In this embodiment, the SFCs and the virtual addresses are mapped one to one, the same SFI can be shared by multiple SFCs, and the SFC carrying the packet can be clearly identified from the packet forwarded to the SFF by the same SFI device, so that the packet is routed according to the identified SFC, and the SFC can be constructed with great flexibility.

It should be noted that the packet may also be forwarded to a forwarding device of another network from the local forwarding device SFF across networks, and at this time, the next hop node may also be an SFF node. The forwarding, by the SFF, the packet forwarded by the SFI node to the next hop node specifically includes: and forwarding the message to the next-hop SFF node through an IP tunneling technology.

Specifically, if a plurality of SFFs are distributed in different subnets, the SFC needs to complete the drainage of the cross-routing node in the transmission network, and a mac over ip tunneling technique needs to be used to tunnel the SFC bearer packet carrying the virtual address to the next SFF. Referring to fig. 2, SFF1 and SFF2 are distributed in different subnets, a mac over ip tunnel, such as Vxlan or GRE, is configured on a port connected between SFF1 and SFF2, and a packet carried by SFC1 is transmitted to SFF2 through the tunnel by SFF 1.

Because the virtual address uniquely identifies the SFC, the intermediate SFF equipment only needs to conduct SFC drainage according to the virtual address, thereby supporting the drainage of the cross-routing node, and needing not to carry out multiple times of full identification and classification on the message, reducing the consumption of message forwarding on entry resources, and improving the capacity and compatibility of the system.

It can be understood that, when the next-hop node is an SFF node, after forwarding the packet forwarded by the SFI node to the next-hop node, the method may further include: receiving a message forwarded by the SFF node; and identifying the SFC according to the source address of the message forwarded by the SFF node, setting the address information of the next-hop SFI node according to the SFC, and forwarding the message forwarded by the SFF node to the next-hop SFI node.

Specifically, on the SFF, with "first ingress port" + "SrcMAC ═ SFCn _ mac" as the identification rule, "setDstMAC is executed as mac" + "of the first SFI, and the port is switched out from the first SFI. With continued reference to fig. 2, after the packet carried by SFC1 is forwarded to SFF2 by SFF1, the packet may also be returned from SFF2 to SFF1, at this time, the first ingress port is the port connected to SFF1 and SFF2, that is, port No. 4, and the first SFI is the first SFI node forwarded after SFF1 accesses the packet returned by SFF2, that is, SFI 4. On the SFF1, the SFC1 carrying the packet is identified according to the source address SFC1_ mac of the packet accessed from port No. 4, the destination address of the next hop node of the packet is set as the address information of the next hop node SFI4 according to the SFC1, and the packet is forwarded to the SFI4 through the port connected with the SFF1 by the SFI4, that is, port No. 5.

And after the last SFF receives the message forwarded by the last SFI node, identifying the SFC according to the destination address of the message, setting the address information of the destination equipment node according to the SFC, and forwarding the message to the destination equipment node.

Specifically, on the "last SFF", the "mac" + "of setDstMAC as the SFC destination device is executed as the identification rule with" port connected to last SFI "+" DstMAC ═ SFCn _ mac "as the identification rule, and" mac "+" of setDstMAC as the SFC destination device is executed as the port connected to the SFC destination device. Wherein, the last SFF refers to the SFF that the SFC passes through last, and referring to fig. 2, the last SFF of the SFC1 is SFF1, the last SFI is SFI4, and the port connected by the last SFI is port No. 5. The SFF1 accesses the packet forwarded by the SFI4 from port No. 5, identifies the SFC1 carrying the packet according to the destination address SFC1_ mac of the packet, sets the destination address of the packet as the address information of the destination device node according to SFC1, and forwards the packet to the destination device via port No. 6.

Compared with the prior art, the method and the device have the advantages that the source addresses of all messages borne by the SFC are preset as the virtual address for uniquely identifying the SFC, and the intermediate SFF equipment completes the flow guiding of the messages borne by the SFC according to the virtual address, so that the method and the device are not limited by physical topology, do not need to add or extend a header field in the messages, have good flexibility, can be well compatible with the existing network equipment, and effectively reduce the construction cost of the SFC; in addition, the virtual address uniquely identifies the SFC, and the intermediate SFF equipment only needs to conduct SFC drainage according to the virtual address, so that the drainage of the message across routing nodes can be supported, the message does not need to be identified and classified for multiple times, the consumption of message forwarding on entry resources is reduced, and the capacity and the compatibility of the system are improved.

A second embodiment of the present invention relates to a packet forwarding method based on a service function chain, including: determining the SFC for bearing the message; and setting the source address of the message as the virtual address mapped by the SFC, and forwarding the message to the SFF. The method provided by the embodiment is applied to the SFC classifier device.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of the present embodiment. The method provided by the present embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 3, and for the same or corresponding technical details, reference is made to the detailed description of the previous embodiment, which is not repeated herein.

Step 201, determining the SFC carrying the message.

Specifically, the SFC carrying the message may be determined by using a commonly used technique in the prior art, and it should be noted that how to determine the SFC carrying the message is not a core of the method, so that a method for determining the SFC carrying the message is not limited in detail herein.

Step 202, the source address of the packet is set as the virtual address mapped by the SFC, and the packet is forwarded to the SFF.

Specifically, in the SFC classifier, according to a classification rule such as a seven-tuple or application layer logic, the source mac address of all messages to be carried by the SFCn is modified to the virtual address "SFCn _ mac" mapped by the SFCn. It should be noted that the maintenance of the mapping relationship may be, but is not limited to, implemented by an SDN controller, where the virtual address SFCn _ mac is any globally unique mac address, and may be, but is not limited to, any unallocated mac address applied by a vendor from IEEE.

Referring to fig. 2, after the source address of the packet carried by the SFC1 is modified to be SFC1_ mac, the packet is forwarded to the SFF1 device through the port No. 1, and the forwarding of the packet is continuously completed on the SFF1 device.

Compared with the prior art, the method and the device have the advantages that the source addresses of all the messages borne by the SFC are set as the virtual addresses which uniquely identify the SFC, and the flow guidance of the messages borne by the SFC can be completed on the intermediate SFF equipment according to the virtual addresses, so that the method and the device are not limited by physical topology, a header field does not need to be added or extended in the messages, the flexibility is good, the existing network equipment can be well compatible, and the construction cost of the SFC is effectively reduced.

The steps of the above methods are divided for clarity, and the implementation may be combined into one step or split some steps, and the steps are divided into multiple steps, so long as the same logical relationship is included, which are within the scope of the present patent; it is within the scope of this patent to add insignificant modifications or introduce insignificant designs to the algorithms or processes, but not to change the core designs of the algorithms and processes.

A third embodiment of the present invention relates to a packet forwarding apparatus based on a service function chain, as shown in fig. 4, including: a receiving module 301, where the receiving module 301 is configured to receive a packet forwarded by a classifier, and identify a service function chain SFC according to a source address of the packet, where the source address of the packet is preset to a virtual address mapped by the SFC that carries the packet; a first forwarding module 302, where the first forwarding module 302 is configured to forward the packet to a next-hop SFI node according to address information of the next-hop SFI node set by the SFC.

In addition, the receiving module 301 may be further configured to receive a packet forwarded by an SFI node, and identify the SFC according to a destination address, where a source address of the packet forwarded by the SFI node is set as address information of the SFI node, and a destination address of the packet forwarded by the SFI node is set as a virtual address; the first forwarding module 302 may be further configured to set a source address of the packet forwarded by the SFI node as a virtual address, set address information of a next hop node according to the service function chain SFC, and forward the packet forwarded by the SFI node to the next hop node, where the next hop node is an SFI node or an SFF node.

In one example, multiple SFFs are distributed in different subnets, an SFC needs to complete drainage across routing nodes in a transmission network, and a mac over ip tunneling technique needs to be used to tunnel the SFC bearer packet carrying the virtual address to a next SFF. Referring to fig. 2, SFF1 and SFF2 are distributed in different subnets, mac over ip tunnels, such as Vxlan or GRE, are configured on the first forwarding modules 302 of SFF1 and SFF2, and a packet carried by SFC1 is transmitted to SFF2 through SFF1 via the tunnels.

When the next hop node is an SFF node, the receiving module 301 may be further configured to receive a message forwarded by the SFF node, and identify the SFC according to a source address of the message forwarded by the SFF node; the first forwarding module 302 may be further configured to forward the packet forwarded by the SFF node to the next-hop SFI node according to the address information of the next-hop SFI node set by the SFC.

It should be understood that the present embodiment is a system example corresponding to the first embodiment, and the present embodiment may be implemented in cooperation with the first embodiment. The related technical details mentioned in the first embodiment are still valid in this embodiment, and are not described herein again in order to reduce repetition. Accordingly, the related-art details mentioned in the present embodiment can also be applied to the first embodiment.

It should be noted that, in practical applications, one logical unit may be one physical unit, may be a part of one physical unit, and may also be implemented by a combination of multiple physical units. In addition, in order to highlight the innovative part of the present invention, a unit which is less closely related to solving the technical problem proposed by the present invention is not introduced in the present embodiment, but it does not indicate that no other unit exists in the present embodiment.

A fourth embodiment of the present invention relates to a packet forwarding apparatus based on a service function chain, as shown in fig. 5, including: the classification module 401, the classification module 401 is configured to determine an SFC carrying a packet; a second forwarding module 402, where the second forwarding module 402 is configured to set a source address of the packet as a virtual address mapped by the SFC, and forward the packet to the SFF.

Since the second embodiment corresponds to the present embodiment, the present embodiment can be implemented in cooperation with the second embodiment. The related technical details mentioned in the second embodiment are still valid in this embodiment, and the technical effects that can be achieved in the second embodiment can also be achieved in this embodiment, and are not described herein again in order to reduce the repetition. Accordingly, the related-art details mentioned in the present embodiment can also be applied to the second embodiment.

A fifth embodiment of the present invention relates to an electronic device, as shown in fig. 6, comprising at least one processor 501; and a memory 502 communicatively coupled to the at least one processor 501; wherein the memory 502 stores instructions executable by the at least one processor 501, the instructions being executable by the at least one processor 501 to enable the at least one processor 501 to perform the above-described method embodiments.

Where the memory and processor are connected by a bus, the bus may comprise any number of interconnected buses and bridges, the bus connecting together various circuits of the memory and the processor or processors. The bus may also connect various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, etc., which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. A bus interface provides an interface between the bus and the transceiver. The transceiver may be one element or a plurality of elements, such as a plurality of receivers and transmitters, providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The data processed by the processor is transmitted over a wireless medium through an antenna, which further receives the data and transmits the data to the processor.

The processor is responsible for managing the bus and general processing and may also provide various functions including timing, peripheral interfaces, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. While the memory may be used to store data used by the processor in performing operations.

A sixth embodiment of the present invention relates to a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program. The computer program realizes the above-described method embodiments when executed by a processor.

Those skilled in the art will understand that all or part of the steps in the method according to the above embodiments may be implemented by a program instructing related hardware to complete, where the program is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a device (which may be a single chip, a chip, etc.) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps in the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, and various media capable of storing program codes.

It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the foregoing embodiments are specific embodiments for practicing the invention, and that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention in practice. Various changes and modifications may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A message forwarding method based on a service function chain is characterized by comprising the following steps:

receiving a message forwarded by a classifier, and identifying a Service Function Chain (SFC) according to a source address of the message, wherein the source address of the message is preset as a virtual address mapped by the SFC bearing the message;

according to the address information of the next-hop service function SFI node set by the SFC, forwarding the message to the next-hop service function SFI node;

after the forwarding the packet to the next hop service function SFI node, the method further includes:

receiving a message forwarded by an SFI node, wherein the source address of the message forwarded by the SFI node is set as the address information of the SFI node, and the destination address of the message forwarded by the SFI node is set as the virtual address;

and identifying the SFC according to the destination address, setting the source address of the message forwarded by the SFI node as the virtual address, and forwarding the message forwarded by the SFI node to a next hop node according to the address information of the next hop node set by the SFC.

2. The service function chain-based packet forwarding method of claim 1, wherein the next hop node is an SFI node or a service function forwarding device SFF node.

3. The service function chain-based packet forwarding method according to claim 2, wherein the next hop node is an SFF node, and after forwarding the packet forwarded by the SFI node to the next hop node, the method further comprises:

receiving the message forwarded by the SFF node;

and identifying the SFC according to the source address of the message forwarded by the SFF node, and forwarding the message forwarded by the SFF node to the next-hop SFI node according to the address information of the next-hop SFI node set by the SFC.

4. The service function chain-based packet forwarding method according to claim 2, wherein the next hop node is an SFF node, and the forwarding the packet forwarded by the SFI node to the next hop node specifically includes: and forwarding the message to a next-hop SFF node through an IP tunneling technology.

5. A message forwarding method based on a service function chain is characterized by comprising the following steps:

determining a Service Function Chain (SFC) for bearing a message;

setting the source address of the message as a virtual address mapped by the SFC, and forwarding the message to service function forwarding equipment (SFF) so that the SFF can identify a Service Function Chain (SFC) according to the source address of the message, wherein the source address of the message is preset as the virtual address mapped by the SFC carrying the message;

6. A message forwarding apparatus based on service function chain, comprising:

the receiving module is used for receiving the message forwarded by the classifier and identifying a Service Function Chain (SFC) according to the source address of the message, wherein the source address of the message is preset as a virtual address mapped by the SFC bearing the message;

the first forwarding module is used for forwarding the message to a next-hop SFI node according to the address information of the next-hop service function SFI node set by the SFC;

The first forwarding module is specifically configured to receive a packet forwarded by an SFI node, where a source address of the packet forwarded by the SFI node is set as address information of the SFI node, and a destination address of the packet forwarded by the SFI node is set as the virtual address;

7. A Service Function Chain (SFC) classification device, comprising:

a classification module for determining a Service Function Chain (SFC) for carrying a message;

a second forwarding module, configured to set a source address of the packet to a virtual address mapped by the SFC, and forward the packet to a service function forwarding device SFF, so that the SFF identifies a service function chain SFC according to the source address of the packet, where the source address of the packet is preset to a virtual address mapped by the SFC that carries the packet;

8. An electronic device, comprising:

at least one processor; and the number of the first and second groups,

a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the memory stores instructions executable by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to perform the service function chain based message forwarding method of any one of claims 1 to 4 or the service function chain based message forwarding method of claim 5.

9. A computer-readable storage medium, storing a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the service function chain based message forwarding method of any one of claims 1 to 4, or implements the service function chain based message forwarding method of claim 5.