Method and system for avoiding new flow packet flood from data plane to control plane of a network device

A system for transmitting a data packet in a data network, the system comprising:

• a network controller configured to provide data flow information to one or more network devices;
• and
• a network device, coupled to the network controller, wherein the network device further comprises
• a data port, coupled to a data network, and configured to receive a data packet comprising information identifying a data flow associated with the data packet,
• a flow table memory storing one or more flow tables and one or more holding tables,
• a first processor, coupled to the data port, and configured to
• determine whether the information identifying the data flow associated with the data packet matches an entry in a flow table stored in the flow table memory,
• provide the data packet to a second processor if the information identifying the data flow associated with the data packet fails to match any entry in any flow table stored in the flow table memory, and
• the second processor configured to
• determine whether the information identifying the data flow associated with the data packet matches an entry in a holding table stored in the flow table memory,
• transmit the data packet to the network controller, if the information identifying the data flow associated with the data packet fails to match any entry in the holding table, wherein the holding table comprises identifying information associated with data packets previously transmitted to the network controllers, and
• store the data packet in a flow context queue associated with the matching entry in the holding table, if the information identifying the data flow associated with the data packet matches an entry in the holding table, wherein
• the flow context queue is stored in the flow table memory, and
• the flow context queue comprises data packets awaiting processing instructions for a flow corresponding to each data packet.