[ovs-discuss] openflow protocol

[Justin Pettit]

It isn't really a layer 2 protocol (it's carried over layer 4), but it allows you to program a switch to make decisions on the traffic it sees based on layer 2 headers (as well as other headers and metadata such as the ingress port).  For example, you could tell the switch if it sees a particular MAC address to always forward it out a particular port so that learning isn't required.

--Justin


On Jan 28, 2013, at 8:38 AM, selen jia <selen764 at gmail.com> wrote:

> hi,
> 
> Please explain so that my doubt z clear. i still didint got why is it layer 2 protocol.
> 
> selen
> 
> On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 1:17 PM, Justin Pettit <jpettit at nicira.com> wrote:
> You are correct that OpenFlow defines flow table entries that describe layers 2, 3, and 4.  You are also correct that the OpenFlow protocol is carried in TCP/SSL, but that is completely independent of the behavior that it is describing of the flow table.
> 
> --Justin
> 
> 
> On Jan 27, 2013, at 9:41 PM, selen jia <selen764 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> >
> > Openflow is named as layer 2 protocol everywhere but as per my knowledge it works on l2 l3 and l4 fields and uses ssl or tls session which is on layer 4.
> >
> > Can someone clear my doubts plzzz.
> >
> > selen
> > _______________________________________________
> > discuss mailing list
> > discuss at openvswitch.org
> > http://openvswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> 
>