OpenFlow 1.1+ support in Open vSwitch
=====================================
-Open vSwitch support for OpenFlow 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 is a work in
+Open vSwitch support for OpenFlow 1.1 and beyond is a work in
progress. This file describes the work still to be done.
The Plan
The list of remaining work items for OpenFlow 1.1 is below. It is
probably incomplete.
- * Implement Write-Actions instruction.
-
- * The new in_phy_port field in OFPT_PACKET_IN needs some kind of
- implementation. It has a sensible interpretation for tunnels
- but in general the physical port is not in the datapath for OVS
- so the value is not necessarily meaningful. We might have to
- just fix it as the same as in_port.
-
- * On OF1.1+ flow_mods, updates by MODIFY are now much better
- specified. Check that OVS implements the new behavior, fix it
- if not.
-
- * OFPT_TABLE_MOD stats. This is new in OF1.1, so we need to
- implement it. It should be implemented so that the default OVS
- behavior does not change.
-
* MPLS. Simon Horman maintains a patch series that adds this
feature. This is partially merged.
-
- * SCTP. Joe Stringer maintains a patch series that adds this
- feature. It has received review comments that need to be
- addressed before it is merged.
+ [optional for OF1.1+]
* Match and set double-tagged VLANs (QinQ). This requires kernel
work for reasonable performance.
+ [optional for OF1.1+]
* VLANs tagged with 88a8 Ethertype. This requires kernel work for
reasonable performance.
-
- * Groups.
+ [required for OF1.1+]
OpenFlow 1.2
------------
-OpenFlow 1.2 support requires OpenFlow 1.1 as a prerequisite, plus the
-following additional work. (This is based on the change log at the
-end of the OF1.2 spec. I didn't compare the specs carefully yet.)
-
- * Use new OpenFlow extensible error infrastructure, on OF1.2+
- only, instead of the OVS-specific extension used until now.
-
- * OFPT_FLOW_MOD:
-
- * MODIFY and MODIFY_STRICT commands now never insert new flows
- in the table. We will still need variations that do,
- though, both to support older OpenFlow protocols and to get
- sensible behavior for the internal implementation of the
- NXAST_LEARN action.
-
- * New flag OFPFF_RESET_COUNTS.
-
- * New cookie field behavior.
-
- * Add ability to delete flow in all tables.
-
- * Update DESIGN to describe OF1.2 behavior also.
+OpenFlow 1.2 support requires OpenFlow 1.1 as a prerequisite. All the
+additional work specific to Openflow 1.2 are complete. (This is based
+on the change log at the end of the OF1.2 spec. I didn't compare the
+specs carefully yet.)
OpenFlow 1.3
------------
didn't compare the specs carefully yet.)
* Add support for multipart requests.
+ Currently we always report OFPBRC_MULTIPART_BUFFER_OVERFLOW.
+ [optional for OF1.3+]
- * Add OFPMP_TABLE_FEATURES statistics.
-
- * More flexible table miss support.
+ * Add OFPMP_TABLE_FEATURES statistics. Alexander Wu has posted a
+ patch series. [optional for OF1.3+]
* IPv6 extension header handling support. Fully implementing this
requires kernel support. This likely will take some careful and
probably time-consuming design work. The actual coding, once
that is all done, is probably 2 or 3 days work.
+ [optional for OF1.3+]
+
+ * Per-flow meters. OpenFlow protocol support is now implemented.
+ Support for the special OFPM_SLOWPATH and OFPM_CONTROLLER meters
+ is missing. Support for the software switch is under review.
+ [optional for OF1.3+]
+
+ * Auxiliary connections. An implementation in generic code might
+ be a week's worth of work. The value of an implementation in
+ generic code is questionable, though, since much of the benefit
+ of axuiliary connections is supposed to be to take advantage of
+ hardware support. (We could make the kernel module somehow
+ send packets across the auxiliary connections directly, for
+ some kind of "hardware" support, if we judged it useful enough.)
+ [optional for OF1.3+]
+
+ * Provider Backbone Bridge tagging. I don't plan to implement
+ this (but we'd accept an implementation).
+ [optional for OF1.3+]
- * Per-flow meters. Similar to IPv6 extension headers in kernel
- and design requirements. Might be politically difficult to add
- directly to the kernel module, since its functionality overlaps
- with tc. Ideally, therefore, we could implement these somehow
- with tc, but I haven't investigated whether that makes sense.
+ * On-demand flow counters. I think this might be a real
+ optimization in some cases for the software switch.
+ [optional for OF1.3+]
+
+ONF OpenFlow Exensions for 1.3.X Pack1
+--------------------------------------
+
+OpenFlow 1.3 has a bunch of ONF extentions.
+Many of them are necessary for OpenFlow 1.4 as well.
+
+ * Flow entry notifications
+ This seems to be modelled after OVS's NXST_FLOW_MONITOR.
+ [EXT-187]
+ [required for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Role Status
+ [EXT-191]
+ [required for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Flow entry eviction
+ OVS has flow eviction functionality.
+ table_mod OFPTC_EVICTION, flow_mod 'importance', and
+ table_desc ofp_table_mod_prop_eviction need to be implemented.
+ [EXT-192-e]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Vacancy events
+ [EXT-192-v]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Bundle
+ Transactional modification. OpenFlow 1.4 requires to support
+ flow_mods and port_mods in a bundle.
+ (Not related to OVS's 'ofbundle' stuff.)
+ [EXT-230]
+ [required for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Table synchronisation
+ [EXT-232]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Group notifications
+ [EXT-235]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Bad flow entry priority error
+ Probably not so useful to the software switch.
+ [EXT-236]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Set async config error
+ [EXT-237]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
+
+ * PBB UCA header field
+ [EXT-256]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Duplicate instruction error
+ We already have ONFBIC_DUP_INSTRUCTION.
+ [EXT-260]
+ [required for OF1.4+]
+
+ * Multipart timeout error
+ [EXT-264]
+ [required for OF1.4+]
+
+OpenFlow 1.4
+------------
- * Per-connection event filtering. OF1.3 adopted Open vSwitch's
- existing design for this feature so implementation should be
- easy.
+ * More extensible wire protocol
+ Many on-wire structures got TLVs.
+ [EXT-262]
+ [required for OF1.4+]
- * Auxiliary connections. These are optional, so a minimal
- implementation would not need them. An implementation in
- generic code might be a week's worth of work. The value of an
- implementation in generic code is questionable, though, since
- much of the benefit of axuiliary connections is supposed to be
- to take advantage of hardware support. (We could make the
- kernel module somehow send packets across the auxiliary
- connections directly, for some kind of "hardware" support, if we
- judged it useful enough.)
+ * More descriptive reasons for packet-in
+ Distinguish OFPR_APPLY_ACTION, OFPR_ACTION_SET, OFPR_GROUP,
+ OFPR_PACKET_OUT. NO_MATCH was renamed to OFPR_TABLE_MISS.
+ [EXT-136]
+ [required for OF1.4+]
- * MPLS BoS matching. (Included in Simon's MPLS series?)
+ * Optical port properties
+ [EXT-154]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
- * Provider Backbone Bridge tagging. I don't plan to implement
- this (but we'd accept an implementation).
+ * Flow-removed reason for meter delete
+ Report flow removal due to meter deletion with OFPRR_METER_DELETE.
+ [EXT-261]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
- * Rework tag order. I'm not sure whether we need to do anything
- for this.
+ * Meter notifications
+ [EXT-235]
+ [optional for OF1.4+]
- * Duration for queue stats. (Duration for port stats is already
- implemented.)
+General
+-----
- * On-demand flow counters. I think this might be a real
- optimization in some cases for the software switch.
+ * ovs-ofctl(8) often lists as Nicira extensions features that
+ later OpenFlow versions support in standard ways.
How to contribute
-----------------
* Coding style (see the CodingStyle file at the top of the source
tree).
- * The patch submission guidelines (see SubmittingPatches). I
+ * The patch submission guidelines (see CONTRIBUTING). I
recommend using "git send-email", which automatically follows a
lot of those guidelines.
git://git.onelab.eu / sliver-openvswitch.git / blobdiff