Elastic Switch Programming with P4All

Abstract

The P4 language enables a range of new network applications. However, it is still far from easy to implement and optimize P4 programs for PISA hardware. Programmers must engage in a tedious "trial and error" process wherein they write their program (guessing it will fit within the hardware) and then check by compiling it. If it fails, they repeat the process. In this paper, we argue that programmers should define elastic data structures that stretch automatically to make use of available switch resources. We present P4All, an extension of P4 that supports elastic switch programming. Elastic data structures also make P4All modules reusable across different applications and hardware targets, where resource needs and constraints may vary.Our design is oriented around use of symbolic primitives (integers that may take on a range of possible values at compile time), arrays, and loops. We show how to use these primitive mechanisms to build a range of reusable libraries such as hash tables, Bloom filters, sketches, and key-value stores. We also explain the important role that elasticity plays in modular programming, and we allow programmers to declare utility functions that control the relative share of data-plane resources apportioned to each module.