Patent ID: 9385948
Filing Date: 2016-07-05
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method performed by a network device acting as a forwarding element within a centralized system in which a control plane and a data plane are decoupled, the method comprising: receiving a first flow entry from a controller, wherein the first flow entry comprises first information for indicating importance of the first flow entry, wherein the importance of the first flow entry is used to determine whether to delete a second flow entry, the second flow entry having second information for indicating importance of the second flow entry, in response to determining that there exists no idle resource for storing the first flow entry in a flow table; determining whether an idle resource for storing the first flow entry in a flow table exists; in response to determining that no idle resource for storing the first flow entry in the flow table exists, determining whether the second flow entry exists in the flow table, wherein the second flow entry comprises the second information for indicating importance of the second flow entry and wherein the importance indicated by the second information is lower than the importance indicated by the first information; and in response to determining that the second flow entry exists in the flow table, deleting the second flow entry from the flow table and then adding the first flow entry to the flow table.