Patent ID: 9736057
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method implemented in a network element managed by a software-defined networking (SDN) controller, the method comprising: receiving a packet at the network element implemented by one or more network devices; determining whether the packet contains a fragment of an original Internet protocol (IP) packet, wherein the original IP packet is fragmented into a plurality of ordered fragments, and wherein a first fragment of the plurality of ordered fragments contains one or more fields associated with open system interconnection layers 4-7; upon determining the packet contains a fragment of the original IP packet, determining whether the packet contains the first fragment of the original IP packet; upon determining that the packet contains the first fragment of the original IP packet, upon determining that the packet contains a non-first fragment of the original IP packet, processing, by the network element, the packet based on the fragment information table unless no matching entry is found and delay of processing the packet is over a delay threshold, wherein processing the packet includes forwarding the packet or discarding the packet.