Patent ID: 9473404
Filing Date: 2016-10-18
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method implemented in a network device coupled to a software-defined networking (SDN) system, wherein the SDN system contains a SDN controller managing the network device, the method comprising: determining that a packet is to be forwarded by a flow table that includes at least two sets of instructions for match fields in entries of the flow table; determining values of a plurality of match key components extracted from the packet to match the values of the plurality of the match key components against the entries of the flow table, wherein the plurality of the match key components contains at least a pair of the match key components in a same type, wherein values of the pair of the match key components are determined based on numerical measures of the pair of the match key components; searching the flow table to find a matching entry for the values of the plurality of the match key components of the packet; upon finding the matching entry for the values of the plurality of the match key components of the packet, selecting one of the at least two sets of instructions of the matching entry following the determination of the values of the plurality of the match key components; performing the selected one of the at least two sets of instructions on the packet; and forwarding the packet by the flow table based on the selected one of the at least two sets of instructions.