A method for managing traffic item in software defined networking includes establishing a downlink flow table of a switch according to the flow entries, establishing an uplink flow table of the switch according to the flow entries, acquiring a data packet by the switch, and generating a transmission path to allocate the data packet according to the data packet, the downlink flow table, and the uplink flow table. The downlink flow table includes a correlation between first transmission ports of the switch and down link switches. The uplink flow table includes a correlation between the first transmission ports and a transmission port group of uplink switches.