METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR USE IN AN OPENFLOW NETWORK

摘要

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus configured to operate as an OpenFlow switch (1). The apparatus comprises a transmitter for periodically sending outgoing link failure detection packets on one or more links, each link being used to carry traffic to a peer OpenFlow switch, a receiver for receiving incoming link failure detection packets over the one or more links from each peer OpenFlow switch, a link failure detection unit (7) for monitoring the reception of incoming link failure detection packets and for determining that a link has failed if incoming link failure detection packets have not been received on that link for a predefined interval, and a link failover unit (8) for redirecting traffic intended for a failed link to a backup link.