MECHANISM TO DETECT CONTROL PLANE LOOPS IN A SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKING (SDN) NETWORK

摘要

A method is performed by a network device acting as a controller in a software defined networking (SDN) network. The method detects control path loops in the SDN network. The method includes receiving a Packet-In message from a switch, where the Packet-In message includes a packet. The method further includes determining a packet identifier associated with the packet, determining a key based on the packet identifier associated with the packet, determining whether an entry associated with the key exists in a loop detection cache, updating a counter value associated with the entry in response to determining that the entry associated with the key exists in the loop detection cache, and determining that the packet is in a control path loop in response to determining that the counter value associated with the entry reaches a threshold value.