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bea97716 BP |
1 | OpenFlow 1.1+ support in Open vSwitch |
2 | ===================================== | |
3 | ||
c37c0382 | 4 | Open vSwitch support for OpenFlow 1.1 and beyond is a work in |
bea97716 BP |
5 | progress. This file describes the work still to be done. |
6 | ||
7 | The Plan | |
8 | -------- | |
9 | ||
10 | OpenFlow version support is not a build-time option. A single build | |
11 | of Open vSwitch must be able to handle all supported versions of | |
12 | OpenFlow. Ideally, even at runtime it should be able to support all | |
13 | protocol versions at the same time on different OpenFlow bridges (and | |
14 | perhaps even on the same bridge). | |
15 | ||
16 | At the same time, it would be a shame to litter the core of the OVS | |
17 | code with lots of ugly code concerned with the details of various | |
18 | OpenFlow protocol versions. | |
19 | ||
20 | The primary approach to compatibility is to abstract most of the | |
21 | details of the differences from the core code, by adding a protocol | |
22 | layer that translates between OF1.x and a slightly higher-level | |
23 | abstract representation. The core of this approach is the many struct | |
24 | ofputil_* structures in lib/ofp-util.h. | |
25 | ||
26 | As a consequence of this approach, OVS cannot use OpenFlow protocol | |
27 | definitions that closely resemble those in the OpenFlow specification, | |
28 | because openflow.h in different versions of the OpenFlow specification | |
29 | defines the same identifier with different values. Instead, | |
30 | openflow-common.h contains definitions that are common to all the | |
31 | specifications and separate protocol version-specific headers contain | |
32 | protocol-specific definitions renamed so as not to conflict, | |
33 | e.g. OFPAT10_ENQUEUE and OFPAT11_ENQUEUE for the OpenFlow 1.0 and 1.1 | |
34 | values for OFPAT_ENQUEUE. Generally, in cases of conflict, the | |
35 | protocol layer will define a more abstract OFPUTIL_* or struct | |
36 | ofputil_*. | |
37 | ||
38 | Here are the current approaches in a few tricky areas: | |
39 | ||
40 | * Port numbering. OpenFlow 1.0 has 16-bit port numbers and later | |
41 | OpenFlow versions have 32-bit port numbers. For now, OVS | |
42 | support for later protocol versions requires all port numbers to | |
43 | fall into the 16-bit range, translating the reserved OFPP_* port | |
44 | numbers. | |
45 | ||
46 | * Actions. OpenFlow 1.0 and later versions have very different | |
47 | ideas of actions. OVS reconciles by translating all the | |
48 | versions' actions (and instructions) to and from a common | |
49 | internal representation. | |
50 | ||
51 | OpenFlow 1.1 | |
52 | ------------ | |
53 | ||
54 | The list of remaining work items for OpenFlow 1.1 is below. It is | |
55 | probably incomplete. | |
56 | ||
bea97716 | 57 | * MPLS. Simon Horman maintains a patch series that adds this |
ac3d64b1 | 58 | feature. This is partially merged. |
4db3f50a | 59 | [optional for OF1.1+] |
bea97716 | 60 | |
bea97716 BP |
61 | * Match and set double-tagged VLANs (QinQ). This requires kernel |
62 | work for reasonable performance. | |
4db3f50a | 63 | [optional for OF1.1+] |
bea97716 BP |
64 | |
65 | * VLANs tagged with 88a8 Ethertype. This requires kernel work for | |
66 | reasonable performance. | |
4db3f50a | 67 | [required for OF1.1+] |
bea97716 | 68 | |
bea97716 BP |
69 | OpenFlow 1.2 |
70 | ------------ | |
71 | ||
86189a8c GS |
72 | OpenFlow 1.2 support requires OpenFlow 1.1 as a prerequisite. All the |
73 | additional work specific to Openflow 1.2 are complete. (This is based | |
74 | on the change log at the end of the OF1.2 spec. I didn't compare the | |
75 | specs carefully yet.) | |
bea97716 | 76 | |
bea97716 BP |
77 | OpenFlow 1.3 |
78 | ------------ | |
79 | ||
80 | OpenFlow 1.3 support requires OpenFlow 1.2 as a prerequisite, plus the | |
81 | following additional work. (This is based on the change log at the | |
82 | end of the OF1.3 spec, reusing most of the section titles directly. I | |
b2c9b585 | 83 | didn't compare the specs carefully yet.) |
bea97716 BP |
84 | |
85 | * Add support for multipart requests. | |
ff3c2c63 | 86 | Currently we always report OFPBRC_MULTIPART_BUFFER_OVERFLOW. |
4db3f50a | 87 | [optional for OF1.3+] |
bea97716 | 88 | |
e2c42ed0 BP |
89 | * Add OFPMP_TABLE_FEATURES statistics. Alexander Wu has posted a |
90 | patch series. [optional for OF1.3+] | |
bea97716 | 91 | |
bea97716 BP |
92 | * IPv6 extension header handling support. Fully implementing this |
93 | requires kernel support. This likely will take some careful and | |
94 | probably time-consuming design work. The actual coding, once | |
95 | that is all done, is probably 2 or 3 days work. | |
4db3f50a | 96 | [optional for OF1.3+] |
bea97716 | 97 | |
e34afc3f BP |
98 | * Per-flow meters. OpenFlow protocol support is now implemented. |
99 | Support for the special OFPM_SLOWPATH and OFPM_CONTROLLER meters | |
100 | is missing. Support for the software switch is under review. | |
4db3f50a | 101 | [optional for OF1.3+] |
bea97716 | 102 | |
4db3f50a SH |
103 | * Auxiliary connections. An implementation in generic code might |
104 | be a week's worth of work. The value of an implementation in | |
105 | generic code is questionable, though, since much of the benefit | |
106 | of axuiliary connections is supposed to be to take advantage of | |
107 | hardware support. (We could make the kernel module somehow | |
108 | send packets across the auxiliary connections directly, for | |
109 | some kind of "hardware" support, if we judged it useful enough.) | |
110 | [optional for OF1.3+] | |
bea97716 | 111 | |
b2c9b585 BP |
112 | * Provider Backbone Bridge tagging. I don't plan to implement |
113 | this (but we'd accept an implementation). | |
4db3f50a | 114 | [optional for OF1.3+] |
bea97716 | 115 | |
bea97716 BP |
116 | * On-demand flow counters. I think this might be a real |
117 | optimization in some cases for the software switch. | |
4db3f50a SH |
118 | [optional for OF1.3+] |
119 | ||
9fa96468 YT |
120 | ONF OpenFlow Exensions for 1.3.X Pack1 |
121 | -------------------------------------- | |
122 | ||
123 | OpenFlow 1.3 has a bunch of ONF extentions. | |
124 | Many of them are necessary for OpenFlow 1.4 as well. | |
125 | ||
126 | * Flow entry notifications | |
127 | This seems to be modelled after OVS's NXST_FLOW_MONITOR. | |
128 | [EXT-187] | |
129 | [required for OF1.4+] | |
130 | ||
131 | * Role Status | |
132 | [EXT-191] | |
133 | [required for OF1.4+] | |
134 | ||
135 | * Flow entry eviction | |
136 | OVS has flow eviction functionality. | |
137 | table_mod OFPTC_EVICTION, flow_mod 'importance', and | |
138 | table_desc ofp_table_mod_prop_eviction need to be implemented. | |
139 | [EXT-192-e] | |
140 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
141 | ||
142 | * Vacancy events | |
143 | [EXT-192-v] | |
144 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
145 | ||
146 | * Bundle | |
147 | Transactional modification. OpenFlow 1.4 requires to support | |
148 | flow_mods and port_mods in a bundle. | |
149 | (Not related to OVS's 'ofbundle' stuff.) | |
150 | [EXT-230] | |
151 | [required for OF1.4+] | |
152 | ||
153 | * Table synchronisation | |
154 | [EXT-232] | |
155 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
156 | ||
157 | * Group notifications | |
158 | [EXT-235] | |
159 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
160 | ||
161 | * Bad flow entry priority error | |
162 | Probably not so useful to the software switch. | |
163 | [EXT-236] | |
164 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
165 | ||
166 | * Set async config error | |
167 | [EXT-237] | |
168 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
169 | ||
170 | * PBB UCA header field | |
171 | [EXT-256] | |
172 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
173 | ||
174 | * Duplicate instruction error | |
175 | We already have ONFBIC_DUP_INSTRUCTION. | |
176 | [EXT-260] | |
177 | [required for OF1.4+] | |
178 | ||
179 | * Multipart timeout error | |
180 | [EXT-264] | |
181 | [required for OF1.4+] | |
182 | ||
183 | OpenFlow 1.4 | |
184 | ------------ | |
185 | ||
186 | * More extensible wire protocol | |
187 | Many on-wire structures got TLVs. | |
188 | [EXT-262] | |
189 | [required for OF1.4+] | |
190 | ||
191 | * More descriptive reasons for packet-in | |
192 | Distinguish OFPR_APPLY_ACTION, OFPR_ACTION_SET, OFPR_GROUP, | |
193 | OFPR_PACKET_OUT. NO_MATCH was renamed to OFPR_TABLE_MISS. | |
194 | [EXT-136] | |
195 | [required for OF1.4+] | |
196 | ||
197 | * Optical port properties | |
198 | [EXT-154] | |
199 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
200 | ||
201 | * Flow-removed reason for meter delete | |
202 | Report flow removal due to meter deletion with OFPRR_METER_DELETE. | |
203 | [EXT-261] | |
204 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
205 | ||
206 | * Meter notifications | |
207 | [EXT-235] | |
208 | [optional for OF1.4+] | |
bea97716 | 209 | |
70d0aed3 BP |
210 | General |
211 | ----- | |
212 | ||
213 | * ovs-ofctl(8) often lists as Nicira extensions features that | |
214 | later OpenFlow versions support in standard ways. | |
215 | ||
bea97716 BP |
216 | How to contribute |
217 | ----------------- | |
218 | ||
219 | If you plan to contribute code for a feature, please let everyone know | |
220 | on ovs-dev before you start work. This will help avoid duplicating | |
221 | work. | |
222 | ||
223 | Please consider the following: | |
224 | ||
225 | * Testing. Please test your code. | |
226 | ||
227 | * Unit tests. Please consider writing some. The tests directory | |
228 | has many examples that you can use as a starting point. | |
229 | ||
230 | * ovs-ofctl. If you add a feature that is useful for some | |
231 | ovs-ofctl command then you should add support for it there. | |
232 | ||
233 | * Documentation. If you add a user-visible feature, then you | |
234 | should document it in the appropriate manpage and mention it in | |
235 | NEWS as well. | |
236 | ||
237 | * Coding style (see the CodingStyle file at the top of the source | |
238 | tree). | |
239 | ||
bee83872 | 240 | * The patch submission guidelines (see CONTRIBUTING). I |
b2c9b585 | 241 | recommend using "git send-email", which automatically follows a |
bea97716 BP |
242 | lot of those guidelines. |
243 | ||
244 | Bug Reporting | |
245 | ------------- | |
246 | ||
247 | Please report problems to bugs@openvswitch.org. |