SFC-Checker: Checking the correct forwarding behavior of Service Function chaining

Abstract

Network middleboxes are difficult to manage and troubleshoot, due to their proprietary monolithic design. Moving towards Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), virtualized middlebox appliances can be more flexibly instantiated and dynamically chained, making troubleshooting even more difficult. To guarantee carrier-grade availability and minimize outages, operators need ways to automatically verify that the deployed network and middlebox configurations obey higher level network policies. In this paper, we first define and identify the key challenges for checking the correct forwarding behavior of Service Function Chains (SFC). We then design and develop a network diagnosis framework that aids network administrators in verifying the correctness of SFC policy enforcement. Our prototype - SFC-Checker can verify stateful service chains efficiently, by analyzing the switches' forwarding rules and the middleboxes' stateful forwarding behavior. Built on top of the network function models we proposed, we develop a diagnosis algorithm that is able to check the stateful forwarding behavior of a chain of network service functions.