Resolving conflicts between rule sets for which priority is expressed by ordered precedence and longest prefix

摘要

A flow manager (120) may receive prioritized packet flow rules from multiple prioritized network services (200) where each flow rule may comprise a packet filter and a prioritized action list. The priority for the flow rules from each network service may be expressed as either longest prefix or ordered precedence. The flow manager may generate a unified rule set (220) according to the received packet flow rules by identifying conflict between pairs of rules and resolving the identified conflicts according the priority relationship two rules of each pair. When resolving conflicts between rules, the flow manager may append the action list of one rule to the action list of another rule, and may also create a new rule by combining the packet filters and actions lists of the conflicting rules.