MULTICAST FORWARDING IN OPENFLOW SDN NETWORK

The present invention relates to a system and method for multicast forwarding over an OpenFlow based network that can save bandwidth and improve transmission efficiency. The system comprises an OpenFlow switch (100) and an OpenFlow controller (200) for managing the OpenFlow switch (100) using OpenFlow protocol. The OpenFlow controller (200) comprises a packet handler (201) for performing identification of a packet-in message, a mapping handler (202) for maintaining one or more multicast address tables, a node status handler (203) subscribing a node service module (206) for detecting location change of the nodes and port subscription, and a group table updater (204) for converting response data of a notification received from the packet handler (201) or the node status handler (203) into an equivalent action bucket. The method comprises the steps of receiving a packet-in message; and processing the packet-in message (301), thereby generating a packet-out message for transmission to the OpenFlow switch (309). (Figure 1)