Patent attributes
Example methods are provided for a network device to perform adaptive polling in a software-defined networking (SDN) environment. One example method may comprise: operating in a polling mode at a current polling round to detect zero or more packets that require packet processing by the network device. The method may also comprise: determining packet characteristic information associated with multiple polling rounds that include the current polling round and one or more previous polling rounds; and based on the packet characteristic information, determining whether a resource performance condition associated with the network device is satisfied. In response to determination that the resource performance condition is satisfied, the network device may operate in the polling mode at a subsequent polling round; but otherwise, switch from the polling mode to an interrupt mode.