[ethbridge-discuss] What next for the ethbridge project?

[David Edmondson]

With the recent surge of interest[1] in the ethernet bridging
implementation, it seems worth reviewing the current state and
discussing some possible next steps.

1. The currently available code is around 18 months old.
2. It's not integrated into the ON build.
3. It has a few bugs.
4. The STP implementation is not complete.
5. The "DLPI promiscuous mode loopback" problem is not addressed.

However, some people are obviously interested in and playing with the
code.

As a side-effect of the Solaris on Xen[2] project we did some work on
2, 3 and 5 (mostly Dong-Hai). In the end we didn't use that work, so
it's sitting around in a workspace somewhere un-loved.

The RBridges project[3] has an interest in ethernet bridging, and the
web page suggests that perhaps the implementation from "this" project
would be useful.

So, what to do next? Here are some options that occurred to me:

* Produce an updated version of the code in its' current form
  (i.e. standalone build, no DLPI changes),
* Produce an ON derived gate with the bridging code and DLPI
  promiscious mode changes integrated,
* Nothing - leave things limping along,
* Abandon the current bits and close down the project.

The first of these would be relatively simple and, presumably, useful
to the people who are using the existing code.

The second would be more useful to some (due to the loopback changes),
but is incomplete (the loopback changes were not finished) and more
difficult to build (because you have to build ON). This version would
work as well as the first when built.

The last two would be sad.

Footnotes: 
[1]  Maybe "surge" is overstating things a bit :-)
[2]  http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/xen
[3]  http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/rbridges/