Network service chaining capabilities mean that a large number of virtual network functions can be connected together in an NFV( network functions virtualization) environment. Because it’s done in software using virtual circuits, these connections can be set up and torn down as needed with service chain provisioning through the NFV orchestration layer.

It depend on how rich you are. How many switches can you buy. How many physical machines can you get. How many technical people will work with you. I saw papers of researches utilized one PC with VMware that simulate Vswitches, pc's and a controller. I read other papers with massive physical switches and 10 or 15 pc's with vmware and vswitches. So the answer depends on your resources

Thank you

Websphere

Thank you for answering ,I couldn't see how Websphere can help implementing service function chaining , could be point some use cases or recommand readings ?

Take a look at the OpenDaylight SFC project - https://wiki.opendaylight.org/view/Service_Function_Chaining:Main. Their latest stable release (Berylium) provides a SFC demo application that can be very useful to implement your proof of concepts - https://github.com/opendaylight/sfc/tree/stable/beryllium/sfc-demo/sfc103.

Cheers,

Thank you

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304802465_SDN_controller_for_network-aware_adaptive_orchestration_in_dynamic_service_chaining?ev=contentfeed&homeFeedVariantCode=d_EU&_iepl%5BviewId%5D=jizpI2gkiDYggns7mNoNzhHq&_iepl%5BsingleItemViewId%5D=qI1m0lOslOTYlfI6tZGK1i31&_iepl%5BactivityId%5D=740689017184258%2C740628250107904%2C740563603300353%2C740563515219968&_iepl%5BactivityType%5D=person_add_bookmark_publication&_iepl%5BactivityTimestamp%5D=1471035223&_iepl%5BhomeFeedVariantCode%5D=d_EU&_iepl%5Bcontexts%5D%5B0%5D=homeFeed&_iepl%5BinteractionType%5D=publicationView

Conference Paper SDN controller for network-aware adaptive orchestration in d...