I currently do not have a real scenario where I have run into this problem.

However, it is easy to see real scenarios where I could run into this. As
you said, most flows start off with a single packet and wait for a
response. But, there is also the flow eviction mechanism which would bring
this into play mid-flow. There is also the UDP traffic which does not have
a ramp up mechanism. Yes, the window is small. But, I think it is real and
could problems for some applications.

-Joji


On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 10:22 PM, Ben Pfaff <b...@nicira.com> wrote:

> It isn't commonly a problem in practice because flows most often start
> off with a single packet and wait for a return packet before ramping up
> packet volume.  I've been aware of the issue for years, but you are the
> only other person I ever recall bringing it up on the mailing lists.
>
> Do you have a real situation (not a hypothetical scenario) where you see
> this causing trouble?
>
> On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 11:06:29AM +0600, junaid khalid wrote:
> > Are you planning to solve this problem in near future or do you have any
> > suggestions to mitigate this problem?
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 2:37 AM, Ben Pfaff <b...@nicira.com> wrote:
> >
> > > On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 01:33:56PM -0700, Joji Mtt wrote:
> > > > I am trying to figure out if there would be a packet order issue
> with the
> > > > current version of OVS. Consider a case where a controller has added
> a
> > > > forwarding rule for a specific flow (Flow A) and this rule is not yet
> > > > installed in the DP. In this scenario, it is conceivable that certain
> > > > (bursty) traffic patterns on Flow A can result in the packets being
> sent
> > > > out of order. E.g. consider an initial burst of 5 packets that miss
> the
> > > > kernel flow table, followed by several subsequent packets arriving at
> > > > random intervals. As soon as the userspace processes the flow miss,
> it
> > > will
> > > > install a rule in the kernel. Depending on the relative timing of the
> > > rule
> > > > installation, any of these subsequent packets could get switched
> directly
> > > > by the kernel before the previous packets that took the slow path
> could
> > > get
> > > > forwarded. I couldn't find any special handling to cover this case.
> Most
> > > > likely it is already handled and I am just missing the part where it
> is
> > > > done. Could anyone clarify this for me?
> > >
> > > Yes, it's possible to get out-of-order packets for this reason.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > discuss mailing list
> > > discuss@openvswitch.org
> > > http://openvswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> > >
>
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