SD-WAN Application Flows

The SWVC List of Application Flows Service Attribute (section 8.7) describes the list of Application Flows that can be forwarded by the SD-WAN and the criteria used to identify them.

The Service Attribute allows detailed matching criteria for each Application Flow to be specified. A small set of required criteria are provided in this document (in section 8.7), and the Service Provider and Subscriber can agree on additional criteria based on the capabilities of the deployed equipment and their business requirements. In many cases, the Service Provider provides a catalog of “built-in” or “pre-defined” Application Flows specified using these criteria, and the Subscriber can select from the catalog. In this case, the Service Provider's catalog needs to include an explicit description of what is, and, if appropriate, what is not included in each of its standard Application Flow definitions, as this, combined with the set selected by the Subscriber, constitutes the value of the Service Attribute.

Each Application Flow can be a member of an Application Flow Group (The SWVC List of Application Flow Groups Service Attribute is described in section 8.6). There are two purposes for grouping Application Flows. First, a Policy can be applied to the Group at an SWVC End Point that then applies to all members of the Application Flow Group. For example, there might be three Application Flows, apple, banana, and pear in the Application Group fruits. A Policy can be assigned to the group fruits, which becomes the Policy for the three Application Flows. Each Application Flow in the group can nonetheless have an explicit Policy assignment that supersedes the group Policy.

The second purpose of an Application Flow Group is to allow a single bandwidth commitment and limit to be applied to a group of Application Flows. Application Flows that are members of an Application Flow Group to which a Policy has been assigned are treated as single aggregated flow of IP Packets that are subject to the bandwidth commitment and limit specified in the Application Flow Group’s Policy (see section 8.5.7).