Method to check health of automatically discovered controllers in software defined networks (SDNs)

摘要

A method to check health of automatically discovered controllers comprises the steps of: (a) a first controller generating a first Controller-Advertisement message carrying the information required to identify and access the first controller when a new switch port becomes active; (b) the first controller sending the generated first Controller-Advertisement to a first switch having the newly activated port; (c) the first controller receiving at least a second Controller-Advertisement message from at least a second controller; (d) the first controller generating a third unsolicited Controller-Advertisement message with its access information to check health of the second controller; (e) the first controller receiving at least a fourth Controller-Advertisement message from the second controller indicating health information of the second controller, wherein the health information is stored in first controller's Controller Information Base (CIB).