US Patent 9038151 Authentication for software defined networks

In one example, a controller device for a software defined network (SDN) includes one or more network interfaces configured to communicate with network devices of the SDN, and one or more processors configured to receive credentials from a client device in accordance with a public key infrastructure (PKI)-based authentication protocol, determine one or more policies that are applicable to the client device based on the received credentials, and program network devices of the SDN to enforce the determined policies on a per-packet-flow basis for packet flows including the client device.