Abstract
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging programmable network architecture, where network control plane is decoupled from forwarding plane. The first standardize communication interface defined between the controls and forwarding layers of the SDN architecture is known as OpenFlow. OpenFlow is a key enabler for SDN that allows direct manipulation on the forwarding plane of network devices. SDN forwarding methods are based on flows, through a protocol like OpenFlow, which operates in contrast to conventional networking device methods, such as TCP/IP routing table and MAC learning table. In more details, OpenFlow protocol has the same forwardingmethods to push L2-L4 functions which are simplified into a Flow-Table(s). This paper discusses the relationship between the processes of forwarding packets in conventional IP routing table versus OpenFlow-table. Then, the paper proposes the three phases of implementing a Distributed Active Information Model (DAIM) within OpenFlow to support an autonomic network management.