SRv6 TE Policy Selection for SLA-Aware Packet Forwarding

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-establishing quality conditions and service attribute requirements for SRv6 TE Policies before packet forwarding. The network device pre-configures multiple SRv6 TE Policies with different service attributes and quality conditions, and pre-determines the target service attribute based on packet flow characteristics. This allows the system to quickly match packets to appropriate policies without real-time quality verification, maintaining high forwarding efficiency while ensuring service quality through pre-validating path conditions.

The patent implements dynamics by making the SRv6 TE Policy selection adaptive to different packet types and flow characteristics. Instead of using a static highest-priority policy for all traffic, the system dynamically selects the target service attribute based on packet flow characteristics, then matches this attribute to the most appropriate SRv6 TE Policy from multiple candidates. This dynamic adaptation ensures that each packet type receives forwarding treatment optimized for its specific quality requirements, preventing service quality deterioration while maintaining efficient forwarding.

The patent applies local quality by associating different service attributes with specific packet flow characteristics and matching them to corresponding SRv6 TE Policies. Each policy is optimized for particular service requirements (e.g., bandwidth, latency, reliability), and the system locally determines the appropriate policy by examining packet flow characteristics. This allows the network device to maintain multiple specialized policies without overwhelming complexity, as each policy serves a specific local service quality requirement rather than requiring a single complex universal policy.

The patent utilizes parameter changes by varying the target service attribute selection based on packet flow characteristics. The system changes the selected service attribute parameters according to the specific traffic type, then selects SRv6 TE Policies that match these parameters. This approach allows the system to manage multiple policies with different parameters (bandwidth, latency, priority) in a structured way, where the parameter selection is driven by traffic characteristics rather than arbitrary complexity, making the policy management more manageable and adaptable.