Table ID configuration option and Layer 4 fields for FlowMod

[DP-2]

Dear HP SDN Team,

First of all to say that I am new to HP SDN Controller, eventhough I have some experience with other controllers (Ryu and ODL) and Mininet enviroment. I have tested a bit HP SDN Controller version 2.0.0. and now I have switched to latest version 2.3.5. I would like to say, that your product is very nice and I think it has a lot of potential for further development.

Currently, I am testing full OpenFlow mode, so Hybrid-mode is turned to false. Controller is working fine, creating appropriate flows for forwarding the traffic.  

For this scenario, I have few question/feature requests:

1. In the version 2.0.0 there was a configuration option for configuring Table ID where reactive flow rules will be installed. For my usage scenario, that was a very nice option, that is lacked on other OpenFlow controllers. In version 2.3.5, I do not see such option. Why this option is removed and can you consider returning this option, because I find it very useful ? I consider developing application that will use multiple flow tables, so it would be very useful if user can configure the flow table that would be used by your supplied forwarding application. 

2. At com.hp.sdn.ctl.path.impl.PathDaemon, there is option layer3.forward, which adds L3 information to the matching conditions of the flow rules. This option only adds IPv4 addresses for matching, without matching IP protocol field. 

- Can you consider adding, for example "layer4.forward" named option, that will add IP protocol header field and TCP/UDP ports and ICMP type/code fields in reactivly created flow rules?

This could be done very easily, just with a bit of additional analysis of the packet header from Packet-In message. This would provide additional granularity of reactivly created flows that would be very useful.

3. I have noticed that proactivly created rules all have "send flow remove" flag set. This is nice and useful, but I guess it would be more convenient if you put flag setting as configurable option.  

4. IPv6 forwarding is currently not supported. Do you have it on the roadmap?

Thank you in advance!

Kind regards,

Dusan

[sdnindia]

Hrllo Dusan,

We are working on your queries/suggestions with product management and will get back once we get any information.

As for removing default.table_id as configurable parameter post 2.0 release here is the reply:

[HP]The default table_id parameter as configurable parameter has been removed after 2.0.0 release however flows can still be pushed by specifying table_id using REST. Post 2.0 releases comes with pipeline support, i.e. if the table_id is not specified then based on the best match the flow gets added to the flow table.

Thanks,

HP SDN Team

[sdnindia]

Hello Dusan,

Thanks for your suggestions.

We will try to incorporate these suggestions in subsequent releases of SDN Controller. However there is no definite commitment in terms of timelines or the suggestions that will be taken.

We will also let you know when that happens.

Regards,

HP SDN Team