research-article

P4: programming protocol-independent packet processors

Authors:

Jennifer Rexford,

Cole Schlesinger,

George Varghese, and

David WalkerAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Volume 44, Issue 3

Pages 87 - 95

https://doi.org/10.1145/2656877.2656890

Published: 28 July 2014 Publication History

Abstract

P4 is a high-level language for programming protocol-independent packet processors. P4 works in conjunction with SDN control protocols like OpenFlow. In its current form, OpenFlow explicitly specifies protocol headers on which it operates. This set has grown from 12 to 41 fields in a few years, increasing the complexity of the specification while still not providing the flexibility to add new headers. In this paper we propose P4 as a strawman proposal for how OpenFlow should evolve in the future. We have three goals: (1) Reconfigurability in the field: Programmers should be able to change the way switches process packets once they are deployed. (2) Protocol independence: Switches should not be tied to any specific network protocols. (3) Target independence: Programmers should be able to describe packet-processing functionality independently of the specifics of the underlying hardware. As an example, we describe how to use P4 to configure a switch to add a new hierarchical label.

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https://doi.org/10.3934/mbe.2024148
Song XLu RGuo Z(2024)High-Performance Reconfigurable Pipeline Implementation for FPGA-Based SmartNICMicromachines10.3390/mi1504044915:4(449)Online publication date: 27-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15040449
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Index Terms

P4: programming protocol-independent packet processors
1. Networks
  1. Network protocols

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review Volume 44, Issue 3

July 2014

127 pages

ISSN:0146-4833

DOI:10.1145/2656877

Editors:
Konstantina Papagiannaki
Telefonica Research, Barcelona, Spain
,
Katerina Argyraki
EPFL, Switzerland
,
Hitesh Ballani
Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK
,
Fabián Bustamante
Northwestern University, USA
,
Joseph Camp
SMU, USA
,
Augustin Chaintreau
Columbia University, USA
,
Phillipa Gill
Stony Brook University, USA
,
Marco Mellia
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
,
Bhaskaran Raman
IIT Bombay, India
,
Joel Sommers
Colgate University, USA
,
Renata Teixeira
LIP6, France
,
Sanjay Jha
University of New South Wales, Australia

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Copyright © 2014 Authors.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 28 July 2014

Published in SIGCOMM-CCR Volume 44, Issue 3

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