System and method for paging flow entries in a flow-based switching device

摘要

A network switching device includes a macroflow sub-plane that performs packet-based routing in the network switching device and a microflow routing sub-plane that performs flow-based routing in the network switching device. The microflow routing sub-plane receives a first data packet, determines that the first data packet is associated with a first flow page, wherein the first flow page comprises a plurality of flow entries, determines that the first flow page is not resident in a routing table of the microflow routing sub-plane, and requests the first flow page from a software defined network (SDN) controller.

主权项

1. A network switching device comprising:
a macroflow sub-plane that performs packet-based routing in the network switching device based upon an identity of a first port that receives data packets and an identity of a second port to which the data packet are to be forwarded, as determined by a header of the data packets, the macroflow sub-plane configured to:
receive a first data packet; anddetermine that the first data packet is not to be routed based upon the packet-based routing; and a microflow routing sub-plane that performs flow-based routing in the network switching device based upon a flow identity associated with the data packets, the microflow routing sub-plane configured to:
receive the first data packet from the macroflow sub-plane;determine that the first data packet is associated with an unknown flow entry;send the first data packet to a software defined network (SDN) controller in response to determining that the first data packet is associated with the unknown flow entry; andreceive, from the SUN controller, a first flow page including a first plurality of flow entries in response to sending the first data packet.