Patent attributes
A flow table management method, devices, and systems. The flow table management method includes: generating, by a software defined network controller, a first flow table entry, where a first field set in the first flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the first field set, and the first field set includes N fields; and sending, by the software defined network controller, an OpenFlow protocol message to an OpenFlow switch, where the OpenFlow protocol message carries the first flow table entry. The technical solution in the embodiments of the present invention helps reduce a data volume of flow table entries delivered by an SDN controller to an OpenFlow switch, thereby reducing overheads of a control channel to reduce a congestion risk of the control channel, and reducing occupied network processing resources of the SDN controller and the OpenFlow switch to deliver the flow table entries.
