Resilience to single event upsets in software defined networks

A method for routing data packets in a software-defined network (SDN), the method comprising:

• receiving a data packet;
• searching a plurality of communication flows in a primary data flow repository based on a criteria associated with the data packet;
• determining that none of the plurality of communication flows satisfy the criteria;
• searching a subset of the plurality of communication flows in a redundant data flow repository, the subset of the plurality of communication flows also being stored in the primary data flow repository, based on the criteria associated with the data packet;
• identifying at least one of the subset of the communication flows that satisfies the criteria;
• routing the data packet based on the at least one of the subset of communication flows that satisfies the criteria;
• and
• duplicating the at least one of the subset of communication flows that satisfies the criteria from the redundant data flow repository to the primary data flow repository.

A software-defined network (SDN) switch resilient to single event upsets, the switch comprising:

• a communications interface to receive and transmit a plurality of data packets;
• a primary data flow repository to store a plurality of communication flows to be used to route a plurality of received data packets;
• a redundant data flow repository to store at least a subset of communication flows also stored in the primary data flow repository;
• and
• a redundancy subsystem to:
• detect a changed communication flow stored in the primary data flow repository;
• identify a communication flow stored in the redundant data flow repository corresponding to the changed communication flow stored in the primary data flow repository;
• and
• replace the changed communication flow in the primary data flow repository with the corresponding communication flow stored in the redundant data flow repository.