Patent ID: 9559959
Date: 2017-01-31
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A control apparatus, comprising: a communication device controller that acts on a set of flow entries retained by a group of communication devices to control the group of the communication devices; and a processor coupled to a memory storing instructions for executing a flow statistics information management unit that is configured to gather and to manage flow statistics information collected by a communication device of the communication devices per flow entry, wherein the communication device controller on occurrence of a new flow finds an estimated lifetime of the new flow based on the flow statistics information, and sets a flow entry, having set an aging time consistent with the estimated lifetime, on the communication devices on a path of the new flow, wherein the set flow entry is removed from the communication devices if no packet corresponding to the set flow entry is received for longer than the set aging time, wherein the communication device controller sets, as the aging time of the flow entry to be set on the communication devices on the path of the new flow, the aging time of a same value for each of the communication devices on the path, and wherein the processor causes the instructions to execute a flow entry management unit that is configured to manage the flow entry retained by each communication device, the communication device controller finding a flow table use ratio or an empty flow table ratio from a number of flow entries registered or a number of empty entries in a flow table over a maximum number of registrable flow entries in each communication device, and the communication device controller correcting the aging time of the flow entry to be set on communication devices on the path of the new flow based on an average value of the flow table use ratio or the empty flow table ratio of the communication devices on the path of the new flow.