Emerging programmable data planes enable us to modify switch behavior using software abstractions. However, developing the data plane software is challenging and typically made in a monolithic manner. We argue that the data plane should be developed modularly and employ additional abstractions to compose data plane programs and steer packets between them. This article presents Programming In-Network Modular Extensions (PRIME), a mechanism to compose data plane program modules and define how to steer traffic through these modules. Additionally, the system employs techniques to ensure that updating the steering configuration is consistent according to end-to-end forwarding guarantees. We deployed use cases with existing P4 programs on BMv2, and the results show that PRIME can compose programs with small overheads in terms of latency, the number of forwarding tables, and parser states.

中文翻译：

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一致的组合和模块化数据平面编程


新兴的可编程数据平面使我们能够使用软件抽象来修改交换机行为。然而，开发数据平面软件具有挑战性，并且通常以整体方式制作。我们认为数据平面应该模块化开发，并采用额外的抽象来组成数据平面程序并在它们之间引导数据包。本文介绍了网络内模块化扩展编程 (PRIME)，这是一种组成数据平面程序模块并定义如何通过这些模块引导流量的机制。此外，该系统还采用技术来确保根据端到端转发保证更新转向配置是一致的。我们在 BMv2 上部署了现有 P4 程序的用例，结果表明 PRIME 可以在延迟、转发表数量和解析器状态方面以较小的开销编写程序。