[ovs-dev] criteria/benchmarks for an improved userspace datapath classifier?

[Ben Pfaff]

Hi Ilya and Ian.  Please allow me to introduce Michal Orsak, a grad
student currently looking at packet classifiers.  He's implemented a
novel classifier that is faster than the one already in OVS in the
benchmarks that he's run.  His classifier is tree-based, like most
high-performance classifiers, but also incremental so that flows can be
inserted and deleted individually without undue delay.  Ultimately, it
might make sense to replace the OVS userspace datapath classifier by one
based on the concepts that he's come up with.

A difficulty with classifiers, however, is coming up with an appropriate
set of benchmarks to compare them fairly.  The userspace datapath
focuses on performance, so do you have a set of benchmarks that you
recommend for comparison?  Are there other criteria that would be
important (besides correctness)?

(I'd take answers from anyone, not just Ian and Ilya!)

Thanks,

Ben.