Methods of operating forwarding elements including shadow tables and related forwarding elements

摘要

A method may be provided to operate a forwarding element in a forwarding plane of a network including the forwarding plane and a control plane. The method may include receiving a packet through an input/output port of the forwarding element and attempting to match the packet with a flow table of the forwarding element. Responsive to the packet missing a match with the flow table, the forwarding element may attempt to match the packet with a shadow table of the forwarding element. Responsive to the packet matching with the shadow table, a new flow rule may be installed in the flow table based on a matching shadow rule from the shadow table. Related forwarding elements are also discussed.