Supported RFCs and standards

Switches support OpenFlow Switch Specification, version 1.0.0 (December 31, 2009) from the Open Networking Foundation, https://www.opennetworking.org/ with some differences.

Unsupported features:

  • TABLE action.

  • The “enqueue” action per the specification.

  • Handling of IP Fragments: OFPC_IP_REASM/OFPC_FRAG_REASM.

  • The flow emergency cache implementation.

  • OpenFlow 0.8.2 - SSL controller connection.

  • OpenFlow 0.8.9 - Explicit handling of IP fragments: OFPC_IP_REASM.

  • OpenFlow 0.8.9 - 802.1D Spanning Tree: OpenFlow does not allow full interaction with the switch Spanning Tree. OpenFlow is confined to the switch Spanning Tree.

  • OpenFlow 0.9 - Emergency Flow Cache.

  • OpenFlow 0.9 - Barrier Command.

  • OpenFlow 1.0 - Slicing. The hardware cannot support the slicing specification. HPE provides its own QoS API instead.

Hardware acceleration limitations:

  • All flows cannot be executed in the switch hardware, because of hardware limitations. Flows not executed in hardware are processed in switch software, which is a slower path.

Switches support OpenFlow Switch Specification, version 1.3.1 (September 2012) from the Open Networking Foundation, https://www.opennetworking.org/ with some differences.

Unsupported features:

  • OFPP_TABLE action.

  • Set-Queue action.

  • Handling of IP Fragments: OFPC_IP_REASM/OFPC_FRAG_REASM.
    • Push-MPLS, Set MPLS TTL, Decrement MPLS TTL actions

    • Push-PBB action

    • Copy TTL outwards, Copy TTL inwards actions

    • Set queue action

  • Some commands for port modification from a controller:
    • OFPPC_NO_STP

    • OFPPC_NO_RECV

    • OFPPC_NO_RECV_STP

    • OFPPC_NO_FWD

    NOTE:

    When port modification commands are sent from the controller, an error message is returned to the controller: OFPET_PORT_MOD_FAILED.

Hardware differences between v1 and v2 Modules affect feature functionality, see Flow classification on v1, v2, and v3 modules for details.