SDN-BASED NETWORK DEVICE WITH EXTENDED FUNCTION AND METHOD OF PROCESSING A PACKET IN THE SAME DEVICE

摘要

The present invention relates to a software-defined networking (SDN) technology. More specifically, the invention relates to the extension of the functionality of an SDN-based networking device. The networking device in accordance with the present invention comprises: multiple flow tables; multiple functional modules performing different functions for each packet; and an entry functional module which determines operations to be performed first out of a multitude of operations including table search and functional module operations corresponding to each packet when the packet are received. Once the entry functional module assigns the table search or functional module operation to be run next as a performance result of the operation determined by the entry functional module, and the assignment repeats itself until a different set of instructions is given to the packet.