Design Decisions In Open vSwitch
                     ================================

This document describes design decisions that went into implementing
Open vSwitch.  While we believe these to be reasonable decisions, it is
impossible to predict how Open vSwitch will be used in all environments.
Understanding assumptions made by Open vSwitch is critical to a
successful deployment.  The end of this document contains contact
information that can be used to let us know how we can make Open vSwitch
more generally useful.


IPv6
====

Open vSwitch supports stateless handling of IPv6 packets.  Flows can be
written to support matching TCP, UDP, and ICMPv6 headers within an IPv6
packet.  Deeper matching of some Neighbor Discovery messages is also
supported.

IPv6 was not designed to interact well with middle-boxes.  This,
combined with Open vSwitch's stateless nature, have affected the
processing of IPv6 traffic, which is detailed below.

Extension Headers
-----------------

The base IPv6 header is incredibly simple with the intention of only
containing information relevant for routing packets between two
endpoints.  IPv6 relies heavily on the use of extension headers to
provide any other functionality.  Unfortunately, the extension headers
were designed in such a way that it is impossible to move to the next
header (including the layer-4 payload) unless the current header is
understood.

Open vSwitch will process the following extension headers and continue
to the next header:

    * Fragment (see the next section)
    * AH (Authentication Header)
    * Hop-by-Hop Options
    * Routing
    * Destination Options

When a header is encountered that is not in that list, it is considered
"terminal".  A terminal header's IPv6 protocol value is stored in
"nw_proto" for matching purposes.  If a terminal header is TCP, UDP, or
ICMPv6, the packet will be further processed in an attempt to extract
layer-4 information.

Fragments
---------

IPv6 requires that every link in the internet have an MTU of 1280 octets
or greater (RFC 2460).  As such, a terminal header (as described above in
"Extension Headers") in the first fragment should generally be
reachable.  In this case, the terminal header's IPv6 protocol type is
stored in the "nw_proto" field for matching purposes.  If a terminal
header cannot be found in the first fragment (one with a fragment offset
of zero), the "nw_proto" field is set to 0.  Subsequent fragments (those
with a non-zero fragment offset) have the "nw_proto" field set to the
IPv6 protocol type for fragments (44).

Jumbograms
----------

An IPv6 jumbogram (RFC 2675) is a packet containing a payload longer
than 65,535 octets.  A jumbogram is only relevant in subnets with a link
MTU greater than 65,575 octets, and are not required to be supported on
nodes that do not connect to link with such large MTUs.  Currently, Open
vSwitch doesn't process jumbograms.


Suggestions
===========

Suggestions to improve Open vSwitch are welcome at discuss@openvswitch.org.