The design and implementation of open vSwitch

TLDR

Open vSwitch is the most widely used virtual switch in cloud environments, a multi‑layer, open‑source switch for all major hypervisor platforms, and was designed de novo for networking in virtual environments, leading to major design departures from traditional soft‑switching architectures. The paper aims to detail advanced flow classification and caching techniques used by Open vSwitch. Open vSwitch employs these techniques to optimize its operations and conserve hypervisor resources. These implementation details will benefit anyone who uses Open vSwitch.

Abstract

Open vSwitch is the most widely used virtual switch in cloud environments. Open vSwitch is a multi-layer, open source virtual switch for all major hypervisor platforms. It was designed de novo for networking in virtual environments, resulting in major design departures from traditional soft switching architectures. We detail the advanced flow classification and caching techniques that Open vSwitch uses to optimize its operations and conserve hypervisor resources. These implementation details will benefit anyone who uses Open vSwitch..