A flow is a customized way of categorizing network packets based on a single attribute or a combination of attributes. Flows enable you to further allocate network resources. For an overview of flows, see Managing Network Resources Through Flows.
Using flows for managing network resources involves the following steps:
Creating the flow.
A flow is created based on attributes that are derived from the information in a packet's header, such as the IP address, transport protocol, and DS field. Starting with Oracle Solaris 11.3, you can create flows that have different combination of attributes on a datalink.
Customizing the flow's use of resources by setting properties that pertain to network resources. Currently, bandwidth, priority, and rank properties can be associated with flows.