Aspects of the embodiments are directed to augmenting a control packet with an interface identifier, the interface identifier identifying an interface at a physical network forwarding element; and transmitting the control packet with the interface identifier to the physical network forwarding element. The interface identifier can be included in metadata of a network service header (NSH). The NSH is encapsulated with the control packet, which is transmitted with the control packet. The NSH can be extracted and the interface identifier used to identify a user interface (or a presenting interface) based on a metadata lookup.