Learn how Network Service Chaining enables dynamic, policy-driven traffic management through virtualized and physical network services.
Service chaining is a networking technique that involves the sequential connection of multiple network services to form a chain. Rather than sending data packets directly from the source to the destination, they are routed through a series of services, each performing a specific function. This enables the customization and optimization of network traffic, leading to improved performance ...
Cisco SD-WAN Service Chaining This knowledge article discusses the service chaining, aka service insertion, capability of Cisco SD-WAN solution and provides a detailed configuration example of how to insert a firewall service into the data traffic path between two branch sites on a Cisco SD-WAN overlay network.

Service chaining deployments can include any type of locations, ranging from data centers and to edge environments. By its virtualized nature, SDN allows service chaining and other ways of optimizing network resources for best use.
Service chaining is a critical feature in modern network architectures, enabling organizations to dynamically manage traffic while ensuring security and performance.

For an overview of service chaining, see the Service Chaining section in Data Center Fabric Blueprint Architecture Components. The following sections show how to implement service chaining and service chaining of multicast in a EVPN VXLAN network.
Service Function Chaining (SFC) refers to the use of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) programmability to create a service chain of connected (virtual) network services.
Service Function Chaining (SFC): The definition and instantiation of an ordered set of network service functions and the subsequent steering of traffic through those functions.
Service Chaining simply consists of a set of network services, such as firewalls or application delivery controllers (ADCs).