[ofa-general] [RFC] upstream IB router support

[Hal Rosenstock]

On Thu, 2007-10-25 at 10:15 -0700, Sean Hefty wrote:
> > My take ($0.02) on this is (at most) experimental if it is to be pushed
> > upstream.
> 
> I agree.  I just didn't want to bother with this change without support 
> for merging the changes upstream.
> 
> > The issue I see is how prestandard v. standard IB routers can be dealt
> > with as cleanly as possible.
> 
> IMO, the risk is minimal.

Understood but there is some risk in terms of compatibility moving
forward.

> The patches do not introduce any new 
> protocols or SA attributes.  Visible changes are limited to setting the 
> DLID field in the CM REQ message to an invalid value that the passive 
> side keys off of to determine the correct value.  A node which does not 
> support this would simply reject the connection with an invalid LID.

How might this affect end node operation when there are standard based
routers ? If there are other larger changes for that, then this
particular issue is a red herring.

I do think it's important to try to keep in mind if it is possible to
smooth a migration path for end nodes (and SMs) in terms of prestandard
and standard routers. That's not to say that there should be no changes;
just that it would be nice to be able to tell the two apart and make
intelligent choices based on this.

-- Hal

> - Sean