diff --git a/functions b/functions
index 8cdd6d8171..aa12e1e826 100644
--- a/functions
+++ b/functions
@@ -511,61 +511,6 @@ function check_path_perm_sanity {
 }
 
 
-# This function recursively compares versions, and is not meant to be
-# called by anything other than vercmp_numbers below. This function does
-# not work with alphabetic versions.
-#
-# _vercmp_r sep ver1 ver2
-function _vercmp_r {
-    typeset sep
-    typeset -a ver1=() ver2=()
-    sep=$1; shift
-    ver1=("${@:1:sep}")
-    ver2=("${@:sep+1}")
-
-    if ((ver1 > ver2)); then
-        echo 1; return 0
-    elif ((ver2 > ver1)); then
-        echo -1; return 0
-    fi
-
-    if ((sep <= 1)); then
-        echo 0; return 0
-    fi
-
-    _vercmp_r $((sep-1)) "${ver1[@]:1}" "${ver2[@]:1}"
-}
-
-
-# This function compares two versions and is meant to be called by
-# external callers. Please note the function assumes non-alphabetic
-# versions. For example, this will work:
-#
-#   vercmp_numbers 1.10 1.4
-#
-# The above will return "1", as 1.10 is greater than 1.4.
-#
-#   vercmp_numbers 5.2 6.4
-#
-# The above will return "-1", as 5.2 is less than 6.4.
-#
-#   vercmp_numbers 4.0 4.0
-#
-# The above will return "0", as the versions are equal.
-#
-# vercmp_numbers ver1 ver2
-function vercmp_numbers {
-    typeset v1=$1 v2=$2 sep
-    typeset -a ver1 ver2
-
-    deprecated "vercmp_numbers is deprecated for more generic vercmp"
-
-    IFS=. read -ra ver1 <<< "$v1"
-    IFS=. read -ra ver2 <<< "$v2"
-
-    _vercmp_r "${#ver1[@]}" "${ver1[@]}" "${ver2[@]}"
-}
-
 # vercmp ver1 op ver2
 #  Compare VER1 to VER2
 #   - op is one of < <= == >= >
diff --git a/lib/neutron_plugins/ovs_base b/lib/neutron_plugins/ovs_base
index 59c7737181..95f4663a52 100644
--- a/lib/neutron_plugins/ovs_base
+++ b/lib/neutron_plugins/ovs_base
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ function _neutron_ovs_base_install_ubuntu_dkms {
     local kernel_major_minor
     kernel_major_minor=`echo $kernel_version | cut -d. -f1-2`
     # From kernel 3.13 on, openvswitch-datapath-dkms is not needed
-    if [ `vercmp_numbers "$kernel_major_minor" "3.13"` -lt "0" ]; then
+    if vercmp '$kernel_major_minor' '<' '3.13'; then
         install_package "dkms openvswitch-datapath-dkms linux-headers-$kernel_version"
     fi
 }