OpenTelemetry B3 Header behavior inconsistent to OpenZipkinPropagator B3

[nidhi171]

Problem Statement

The Opentelemetry B3 Propagtor definition of TraceId says:

{TraceId}

Required
Encoded as 32 or 16 lower-hex characters
16 character traceIds will be converted to 32 characters by left-padding with 0s to conform with the OpenTelemetry specification
However Openzipkin-B3 suggests that The TraceId is 64 or 128-bit in length and indicates the overall ID of the trace.

Why is there an inconsistency b/w the two? This is causing a slight issue on our end since one of our services uses OpenZipkin and the other Open telemetry. We propagate 64 bit B3 Headers but OpenTelemetry left pads 0s and converts it into 128 bit making us do extra work while searching in the logs. Is there a way to either enable left padding in both vs suppress in both?

Any recommendations are appreciated.

Proposed Solution

I created a corresponding issue with openzipkin and they suggested to reach out to OTEl. openzipkin/b3-propagation#47