There are provided measures for handling a signaling message on a data plane in a software-defined architecture. Such measures may exemplarily comprise establishing, in a control plane entity, an instruction for reacting to a specific incoming signaling message on the data plane with a corresponding outgoing message on the data plane, providing the established instruction from the control plane entity to a data plane entity for instructing the data plane entity to react to the specific incoming signaling message with the corresponding outgoing message in accordance with the established instruction, and reacting, in the data plane entity, upon detection of the specific incoming signaling message on the data plane, to the specific incoming signaling message on the data plane in accordance with the provided instruction.