Abstract: This invention provides a new mechanism to load-balance traffic using only a SDN switch with high TCAM space efficiency, avoidance of frequent updates, robustness against accidental or malicious traffic overload, and balancing with respect to any load metric provided said metric is monotonically increasing with traffic rates. Layer for load-balancing logic is folded into the invention by the introduction of L4 matches and return flow-pinning.

Abstract: In a software-defined network (SDN) multiple servers and switches (the devices) connect into a (sub-)network under a (logically) centralized controller. As each device boots up it may have physically network connectivity but logically it is not connected to the SDN. In order to establish a logical connection the device must receive a network address assignment. There are legacy protocols for this purpose, e.g., DHCP that could be and have been adapted for use in software-defined networks. This invention specifies a different, enumeration-based method for address assignment in hierarchically-organized SDNs, which exploits the topological properties of the SDN for the purpose of device enumeration. This invention provides both Layer 2 and Layer 3 addresses for each device of the SDN.