P4 enabled SFC Orchestrator

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.