Patent ID: 9742666
Date: 2017-08-22
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: receiving a plurality of flow entries for distribution to a set of forwarding elements that implement a logical network; modeling each of the flow entries as a function that operates on a set of packet header fields that represent a packet header; using the modeled functions to identify a set of paths from a packet source to a packet destination, each identified path comprising an ordered set of flow entries that act successively on a particular packet header; for each particular path of the identified paths, using inverses of the modeled functions to determine a set of packet headers for the particular path, wherein packets sent from the packet source with any packet header in the set of packet headers for the particular path follow the particular path through the flow entries, wherein each set of packet headers comprises values for the set of packet header fields, wherein the value for at least one packet header field is wildcarded for at least one of the sets of packet headers.