Re: [PATCH net-next RFC 0/5] Add NTF_EXT_AGED to control FDB ageing in SW or HW

[roopa <roopa@cumulusnetworks.com>]

On 2/19/15, 11:09 PM, sfeldma@gmail.com wrote:
> From: Scott Feldman <sfeldma@gmail.com>
>
> Add a new NTF_EXT_FLAG to mark an FDB as externally aged, for example by
> offload hardware.   Switchdev driver/devices can set this flag when learning a
> new FDB entry and SW (the bridge driver) will skip this entry when running its
> ageing task.  If flag is set, the driver/device is responsible for calling
> call_netdev_switch_notifiers(NETDEV_SWITCH_FDB_DEL, ...) when entry expires.
>
> This give the flexibility for driver/device to decide ageing policy based on
> its capabilities.  For devices managing many FDB entries, it is desireable for
> the device to aged out its own entries.  Devices not capable of aged entries
> can rely of SW to age out the entries.
>
scott, patches look good. However, I am not sure yet if there is a need 
to make it a per fdb entry flag.

At some point we will also need the hw ageing parameter to be configurable.
So other approach could be,
- ageing parameter on bridge gets offloaded the hw
- so, by default hw and kernel age their own entries using the same 
bridge device default timer
- User can explicitly disable HW ageing by using self (this needs some 
more thought because now the call is on the bridge device)

Thanks,
Roopa