SWITCH CONFIGURATION BASED ON TEMPLATES

A network switch circuit associated with a communication network is disclosed. The network switch circuit comprises a switching circuit configured to receive a switch configuration request comprising a configuration command comprising information on a switching rule associated with the network switch circuit; and a configuration template comprising a real packet header comprising real values for one or more fields required for the execution of the switching rule. In some embodiments, the configuration template is indicative of a real network data packet format. In some embodiments, the switching circuit is further configured to process the switch configuration request, in order to apply the switching rule to an incoming network data packet.