Patent ID: 8717895

Claim:
A virtualization application for managing a plurality of managed switching elements that forward data through a network, the virtualization application comprising: a first set of tables for storing input logical forwarding plane data tuples that define a logical data path set as a plurality of logical flow entries; a second set of tables for storing output physical control plane data tuples that define rules for the managed switching elements to follow in order to implement the logical data path set when processing data packets; and a table mapping engine for mapping the input logical forwarding plane data tuples in the first set of tables to output physical control plane data tuples in the second set of tables by performing a set of database join operations on the input logical forwarding plane data tuples in the first set of tables, wherein at least a portion of the physical control plane data tuples are for propagation to a set of managed switching elements for subsequent translation by the managed switching elements into physical forwarding behaviors that direct the forwarding of data by the managed switching elements in order to effectuate the logical data path set.