A match-plus-action paradigm for handling Packets in Routers.
The match can be made over multiple header fields associated with different Protocols at different Layers.
Examples
Actions
The action could be:
- Forward a Packet to one or more Output Ports.
- Load balance Packets across multiple outgoing Network Interfaces.
- Rewriting header values, as in NAT.
- Purposefully blocking/dropping Packets, as in a firewall.
- Sending a Packet to a special server for further processing, as in DPI.
Implementations
- OpenFlow