Book Image

OpenFlow Cookbook

Book Image

OpenFlow Cookbook

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (17 chapters)
16
Index

Flow table synchronizations

The OpenFlow specification provides a mechanism to synchronize one flow table with another flow table.

How to do it...

The OpenFlow specification doesn't define any explicit message to enable flow table synchronization. The switch might implement the flow table synchronization. When two tables (say, a source table and a synchronized table) are synchronized, then the addition, or deletion, or modification of any flow entry in the source table should result in updating the same flow entry in the synchronized table of the switch.

The flow tables could be synchronized unidirectionally or bidirectionally. The flow entries that are added automatically to the synchronized table can be deleted or modified by the controller using the OFPT_FLOW_MOD message. This provides a mechanism for the controller to customize or post-program the flow entries after been synchronized by the switch.

The most common use of flow table synchronization is for mapping the traditional layer...