CONTAINERIZED ROUTER SERVICE CHAINING FOR CONTAINERIZED NETWORK FUNCTIONS

The disclosure relates to computer networking and, more specifically, to service chaining a containerized network function (CNF) using a containerized router, the CNF and containerized router both deployed to the same server. In an example, a method comprises executing, with a computing device: a containerized network function; a virtual router to implement a data plane for a containerized router; and a containerized routing protocol daemon to implement a control plane for the containerized router, wherein the containerized network function and containerized routing protocol daemon execute on the same computing device, and wherein a first virtual network interface of the computing device enables communications between the containerized network function and the virtual router; and forwarding, by the virtual router, based on a static route, traffic destined for a prefix to the first virtual network interface to send the traffic to the containerized network function.