Patent ID: 9596173
Date: 2017-03-14
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
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: receiving a packet from the SDN controller; processing the packet according to a packet generation flow table that contains at least a first and a second flow table entry that each matches the packet, wherein the first and second flow table entries contain instructions to forward the packet according to a first and a second group table respectively, wherein the first flow table entry is to expire after a first time duration and the second flow table entry is to expire after a second time duration longer than the first time duration, and wherein the first flow table entry has a first priority and the second flow table entry has a second priority lower than the first priority; forwarding the packet according to the first group table upon determining that the first flow table entry is an entry matching the packet with a highest priority and the first time duration is not expired; duplicating the packet into two packets at the first group table, wherein one packet is transmitted to a first packet queue that transmits packets in a first fixed interval to a loopback port of the network device that loops back the packets, wherein the other packet is forwarded to a first packet buffer that randomly drops packets at a first probability prior to transmitting the remaining packets out of the network device; receiving the packet from the loopback port; forwarding the packet according to the second group table upon determining that the second flow table entry is an entry matching the packet with a highest priority and the second time duration is not expired; and duplicating the packet into two packets at the second group table, wherein one packet is transmitted to a second packet queue that transmits packets in a second fixed interval to the loopback port, wherein the other packet is forwarded to a second packet buffer that randomly drops packets at a second probability prior to transmitting the remaining packets out of the network device.