When the exporter in sdk sends out traces, can we assume that a root span will include all of its child spans in a single batch?

[ramgdev]

If the child spans come in different batches and the collector pod has multiple replicas, what would be the shape of the payload expected at the collector/receiver?

[ramgdev]

Let me explain the background. We have a custom exporter that processes the attributes and spans of a root span representing the transaction. Our backend only expects one record per transaction and the root span is our data source to create that record. If we end up getting the child spans in multiple batches, then we have an incomplete record in our database. The only way to ensure that we have all the data for our record is to get all the spans related to the transaction in the same batch. I know our sdk exporter doesn't send the span until it is closed (i.e transaction is completed). Is this by design or we just happened to be working that way? Please correct me if I misunderstood anything. I can do more tests and find out if there is a real issue. But I am trying to understand this conceptually so we are doing the right thing by relying on the presence of all children when processing the root span. Thanks.