A forwarding path link table packet is generated, the forwarding path link table packet comprises forwarding information of each SDN switch on a forwarding path; and the forwarding path link table packet is delivered to any one of SDN switches on the forwarding path, to enable the forwarding path link table packet to be delivered among SDN switches on the forwarding path, so as to cause each SDN switch that receives the forwarding path link table packet to generate a forwarding flow table entry of the SDN switch according to the forwarding information of the SDN switch in the forwarding path link table packet, and forward the forwarding path link table packet on the forwarding path.

Techniques are described for policy driven on-demand tunnel creation and deletion between end points in a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) having a hub-and-spoke topology. A software-defined networking (SDN) controller that facilitates cloud-based services of a service provider network that sets up the SD-WAN is configured to determine whether a tunnel between end-points is to be created or deleted based on information indicative of the traffic, such as amount, time, application generating the traffic, and the like, between end-points.

A forwarding path link table packet is generated, the forwarding path link table packet comprises forwarding information of each SDN switch on a forwarding path; and the forwarding path link table packet is delivered to any one of SDN switches on the forwarding path, to enable the forwarding path link table packet to be delivered among SDN switches on the forwarding path, so as to cause each SDN switch that receives the forwarding path link table packet to generate a forwarding flow table entry of the SDN switch according to the forwarding information of the SDN switch in the forwarding path link table packet, and forward the forwarding path link table packet on the forwarding path.

Techniques are described for policy driven on-demand tunnel creation and deletion between end points in a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) having a hub-and-spoke topology. A software-defined networking (SDN) controller that facilitates cloud-based services of a service provider network that sets up the SD-WAN is configured to determine whether a tunnel between end-points is to be created or deleted based on information indicative of the traffic, such as amount, time, application generating the traffic, and the like, between end-points.