--- zzzz-none-000/linux-3.10.107/Documentation/networking/openvswitch.txt 2017-06-27 09:49:32.000000000 +0000 +++ scorpion-7490-727/linux-3.10.107/Documentation/networking/openvswitch.txt 2021-02-04 17:41:59.000000000 +0000 @@ -91,6 +91,59 @@ in_port(1), eth(...), eth_type(0x0800), ipv4(...), tcp(...) +Wildcarded flow key format +-------------------------- + +A wildcarded flow is described with two sequences of Netlink attributes +passed over the Netlink socket. A flow key, exactly as described above, and an +optional corresponding flow mask. + +A wildcarded flow can represent a group of exact match flows. Each '1' bit +in the mask specifies a exact match with the corresponding bit in the flow key. +A '0' bit specifies a don't care bit, which will match either a '1' or '0' bit +of a incoming packet. Using wildcarded flow can improve the flow set up rate +by reduce the number of new flows need to be processed by the user space program. + +Support for the mask Netlink attribute is optional for both the kernel and user +space program. The kernel can ignore the mask attribute, installing an exact +match flow, or reduce the number of don't care bits in the kernel to less than +what was specified by the user space program. In this case, variations in bits +that the kernel does not implement will simply result in additional flow setups. +The kernel module will also work with user space programs that neither support +nor supply flow mask attributes. + +Since the kernel may ignore or modify wildcard bits, it can be difficult for +the userspace program to know exactly what matches are installed. There are +two possible approaches: reactively install flows as they miss the kernel +flow table (and therefore not attempt to determine wildcard changes at all) +or use the kernel's response messages to determine the installed wildcards. + +When interacting with userspace, the kernel should maintain the match portion +of the key exactly as originally installed. This will provides a handle to +identify the flow for all future operations. However, when reporting the +mask of an installed flow, the mask should include any restrictions imposed +by the kernel. + +The behavior when using overlapping wildcarded flows is undefined. It is the +responsibility of the user space program to ensure that any incoming packet +can match at most one flow, wildcarded or not. The current implementation +performs best-effort detection of overlapping wildcarded flows and may reject +some but not all of them. However, this behavior may change in future versions. + + +Unique flow identifiers +----------------------- + +An alternative to using the original match portion of a key as the handle for +flow identification is a unique flow identifier, or "UFID". UFIDs are optional +for both the kernel and user space program. + +User space programs that support UFID are expected to provide it during flow +setup in addition to the flow, then refer to the flow using the UFID for all +future operations. The kernel is not required to index flows by the original +flow key if a UFID is specified. + + Basic rule for evolving flow keys ---------------------------------