Output port Normal action

Output port Normal is a reserved action. Normal action represents the traditional non-OpenFlow pipeline of the device. Normal is a special type of output port included in the actions associated with a flow. When a flow is received from the controller with output port as Normal, the switch processes the matched incoming packet using the local switching or routing.

Capabilities

Output ports with Normal action flows support the following capabilities.

  1. Output port Normal action is supported on both hybrid ports and non-hybrid ports on the ICX 7750 and ICX 7450.
  2. Generic flow with Normal action is supported .
  3. Meter action is supported for Normal action flows.
  4. Normal action is supported for both OpenFlow 1.0 and OpenFlow 1.3 versions.
  5. Normal action supports both tagged and untagged traffic.
  6. Flow with Normal action can have additional action as sent to OpenFlow Controller.

Limitations

These are the limitation for Normal action flows.

  1. The following packet modifications are supported, when Normal is used as output port in the flow:
    1. IP DSCP remark
    2. Set Queue
  2. Group action is not supported for Normal action flows.
  3. OpenFlow must be enabled in hybrid-port mode on ICX 6610 for the output port Normal action to work.
  4. Normal action is not supported, if the OpenFlow port is a untagged port of a VLAN other than default VLAN, on ICX 7750 and ICX 7450.

Outport port Normal and Mirror to a port

Datatap applications make use of port mirroring to monitor the real-time traffic. With OpenFlow, Datatap applications can monitor traffic on selective flows for selective periods of time, inspect the packets in real time and take action.

  1. A flow with action Normal and Output port is accepted and packets will be mirrored to Output Port together with Normal Layer 2 or Layer 3 processing.
  2. This feature is supported only on the ICX 7750 and ICX 7450.
  3. None of the packet modifications will be applied on the traffic, that is sent to the mirrored port.
  4. All other capabilities and limitations listed in the Output port Normal action section are also applicable to this feature.

Parent topic: Overview of OpenFlow 1.3