US Patent 10116553 Application identifier in service function chain metadata

This disclosure pertains to augmenting metadata of a packet destined for service function chaining with application identifier information. The application identifier information can be added to the metadata of a packet service header (or, more specifically, a network service header). The packet can be exported to a statistics collector that can correlate statistical information about the application with statistical information about service functions applied to the packet, as well as other statistical information.