Techniques are provided for managing and distributing communications in a network. At a first switch device arranged in a first configuration in a network, a set of one or more network attributes are determined, which are associated with network communications that the first switch device is interested in receiving from other network devices. The first switch device sends to a controller device an attribute interest message that informs the controller device of the set of network attributes. The first switch device receives a mapping of the network attributes in to one or more identifiers. The identifiers are included in a header of subsequent frames sent in the network. An identifier interest message is then sent to a second switch device arranged in a second network configuration in the network to inform the second switch device of identifiers of the network attributes of which the first device has an interest.