By James Kim, Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.
Service Function Chaining (SFC) is a concept that has been around for a while. Newer technology advancements in the SDN and NFV space now give operators a method to implement SFC architecture in the network. SFC also gives the operators two main benefits; flexibility in offering new services to customers and data path manipulation.
CableLabs’ Open Networking Project, which includes participants from cable operators, the vendor community, and CableLabs staff, has been researching SFC and trying to identify the necessary DOCSIS components to enable SFC.
This paper looks briefly at SFC and the research work currently happening in IETF and then the use cases relevant for the DOCSIS network. Finally, the paper examines different methods of introducing SFC into the DOCSIS network, identifies the benefits for each, and provides a recommendation for cable operators.