Patent ID: 9282164
Filing Date: 2016-03-08
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for selecting a tag for use in a software-defined networking (SDN) environment, the method comprising: receiving an attribute describing a network flow from a user application executing on a computing device, wherein the computing device includes a hierarchical stack comprising a plurality of layers through which packets of the network flow traverse before being transmitted into the SDN environment; transmitting the attribute from the user application to at least one layer of the hierarchical stack, wherein the at least one layer stores a hint database of one or more rules to select at least one tag; comparing the attribute to the hint database to select at least one tag for the network flow, wherein the selected tag is associated with a corresponding action to be performed in the SDN environment; inserting the received tag into at least one packet in the network flow; and after inserting the received tag, transmitting the at least one packet into the SDN environment, wherein at least one network device in the SDN environment is configured to recognize the tag in the at least one packet and perform the corresponding action.