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Message-ID: <20140209222109.GC15402@verge.net.au>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 07:21:09 +0900
From: Simon Horman <horms@...ge.net.au>
To: Ben Pfaff <blp@...ira.com>
Cc: Jesse Gross <jesse@...ira.com>, dev@...nvswitch.org,
netdev@...r.kernel.org, Pravin B Shelar <pshelar@...ira.com>,
Ravi K <rkerur@...il.com>, Joe Stringer <joe@...d.net.nz>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2.53] datapath: Add basic MPLS support to kernel
On Fri, Feb 07, 2014 at 08:15:49AM -0800, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 05:54:38PM +0900, Simon Horman wrote:
> > * Ben has explained to me that there has been a change of direction
> > at the ONF with regards to MPLS and VLAN tag ordering. As per
> > his changelog for "Always insert MPLS labels after VLAN tags",
> > the situation is now as follows:
> >
> > * OpenFlow 1.1 and 1.2 always inserted MPLS labels after VLAN tags.
> > * OpenFlow 1.3 and 1.4 insert MPLS labels before VLAN tags.
> > * OpenFlow 1.3.4 and 1.5, both in preparation, recognize that the change
> > in 1.3 was an error and revert it.
> >
> > With this in mind only OF1.4 specifies a requirement for inserting MPLS
> > labels before VLAN tags. This appears to be an abbertation at this
> > point.
> >
> > Ben's suggestion as per his patch "Always insert MPLS labels after VLAN
> > tags" is that Open vSwtich should only support inserting MPLS labels
> > after VLAN tags. I agree with this. And to this end I have
> > updated the MPLS code for the kernel datapath (this patch).
>
> I spoke to Jesse briefly about MPLS versus VLANs a few days ago. He
> expressed a concern about the larger problem of figuring out how all the
> various forms of tags should interact: VLAN, MPLS, PBB, and others that
> I can't think of at the moment. It would be more consistent from this
> higher point of view if "push" and "pop" actions always acted in a
> predictable place.
>
> I agree with that point, but it still stands that I don't know of a
> well-defined way for VLAN-inside-MPLS to function. So here is my
> proposal for you and Jesse to consider:
>
> - The datapath push_mpls action is well-defined when no VLAN is
> present. Great.
>
> - Declare the behavior of the datapath push_mpls action to be
> undefined in the presence of a VLAN for now, since we don't
> really know what should happen. For now, make the datapaths
> reject any flow that does push_mpls in the presence of a VLAN.
> Later, we can redefine that case as we please since userspace
> should not depend on the previous behavior.
>
> - Modify userspace to pop_vlan, push_mpls, push_vlan if
> necessary to avoid the undefined behavior.
>
> Jesse, is that reasonable?
FWIW, that sounds very reasonable to me.
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