An NFM-P-managed OpenFlow switch includes the following:

• one flow table

• one communication channel for each OpenFlow controller of the switch

• the OpenFlow protocol

The NFM-P uses SNMP to create and enable an OpenFlow switch instance on an NE. After the initial configuration, the controller and switch communicate using the OpenFlow protocol over an in-band or out-of-band connection. One NE can have up to eight OpenFlow switch instances.

The following figure shows an NFM-P system that manages two OpenFlow switches on separate NEs.

Figure 29-1: Basic OpenFlow management topology