Manual Chapter : Benefits of a lightweight SFC controller

Applies To:

  • BIG-IP LTM

    21.0.0, 17.5.1, 17.5.0, 17.1.3, 17.1.2, 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.6, 16.1.5, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.10, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0

Updated Date: 07/07/2026

Benefits of a lightweight SFC controller

As a lightweight SFC controller, the BIG-IP system can:

  • Smoothly transition customer BIG-IP devices to an SFC architecture without the need for an external SDN controller.
  • Provide an SFC architecture that is solution-independent and vendor-agnostic.
  • Provide an RFC 7665-compliant architecture, including the ability to configure BIG-IP devices as service chain classifiers and service function forwarders (SFFs). The BIG-IP system as a lightweight controller also supports the ability to select previously-created VLAN and tunnel interfaces that serve to connect BIG-IP SFFs to service functions (SFs).
  • Operate in the future as a mediation layer, to accept configuration data from an external SDN controller.