A control device in a software-defined network SDN network, wherein the SDN network comprises at least one switching device, and the control device comprises: a flow table capability acquiring unit, configured to acquire flow table capability information of the at least one switching device; a policy setting unit, configured to set at least a first to a third matching policy, wherein the first to the third matching policy are used to match flow table capability information of the switching device to acquire a flow table for forwarding the data by the switching device; a policy matching unit configured to perform, matching on the flow table of the switching device that the data needs to pass through during forwarding, according to the flow table capability information acquired by the flow table capability acquiring unit and an order from the first matching policy to the third matching policy, and obtain the flow table for forwarding the data by the switching device that the data needs to pass through during forwarding; an action allocating unit configured to allocate, according to the first to the third matching policy used to obtain the flow table, an action that needs to be executed in the flow table obtained by the policy matching unit; and a flow table sending unit, configured to send the flow table obtained by the policy matching unit to the switching device that the data needs to pass through during forwarding; wherein the first matching policy requires that all requirements of data forwarding be met, and requires that all actions required during data forwarding be executed; the second matching policy does not require that all requirements of data forwarding be met, and requires that an action supported by the switching device be executed; and the third matching policy requires that a lowest requirement of data forwarding be met, and requires that an action that needs to be executed during data forwarding be executed. a flow table capability acquiring unit, configured to acquire flow table capability information of the at least one switching device; a policy setting unit, configured to set at least a first to a third matching policy, wherein the first to the third matching policy are used to match flow table capability information of the switching device to acquire a flow table for forwarding the data by the switching device; a policy matching unit configured to perform, matching on the flow table of the switching device that the data needs to pass through during forwarding, according to the flow table capability information acquired by the flow table capability acquiring unit and an order from the first matching policy to the third matching policy, and obtain the flow table for forwarding the data by the switching device that the data needs to pass through during forwarding; an action allocating unit configured to allocate, according to the first to the third matching policy used to obtain the flow table, an action that needs to be executed in the flow table obtained by the policy matching unit; and a flow table sending unit, configured to send the flow table obtained by the policy matching unit to the switching device that the data needs to pass through during forwarding; wherein the first matching policy requires that all requirements of data forwarding be met, and requires that all actions required during data forwarding be executed; the second matching policy does not require that all requirements of data forwarding be met, and requires that an action supported by the switching device be executed; and the third matching policy requires that a lowest requirement of data forwarding be met, and requires that an action that needs to be executed during data forwarding be executed.