US Patent 11159366 Service chaining for virtual execution elements

Techniques are described for providing a controller to configure, within a given namespace, a virtual network for a pod and an application service address for an application service to enable access to the pod. For example, the controller may configure in each namespace a virtual network for a logically-related group of one or more containers (“pod”) and application service address for an application service that is an abstraction which defines a logical set of pods and a policy by which to access the pods (e.g., load balancing). Techniques are also described for providing a controller to configure controller configures the service chain by configuring the left interface of a service node with a virtual routing and forwarding instance (VRF) identifying the pod of a first namespace and the right interface of the service node with a VRF identifying the application service of a second namespace.