Patent ID: 9112794
Filing Date: 2015-08-18
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method, in a logically centralized controller, for dynamic multipath forwarding in a software defined network, the method comprising: identifying a set of multiple forwarding paths for a flow, wherein each packet of the flow is issued by a source endpoint and has a real destination address corresponding to a destination endpoint; assigning a virtual destination address for each multiple forwarding path in the set of multiple forwarding paths; installing virtual destination address based forwarding rules in switches for each multiple forwarding path; installing rewriting rules in an egress switch for all paths in the set of multiple forwarding paths, wherein each rewriting rule rewrites one of the virtual destination address to the real destination address; and configuring an ingress switch to dynamically select a path from the set of multiple forwarding paths based on a multipath policy and rewrite the destination address from the real destination address to a virtual destination address corresponding to the selected path.