P4 Developer Days – P4TC Provisioning And Runtime Control API

Abstract

The P4TC Control APIs consist of two primary interfaces built on the netlink framework: one for provisioning P4 program manifestations in the Linux kernel and another for managing the P4 runtime. This talk focuses on the P4TC runtime, which employs P4 annotations to link datapath constructs with the control plane. These annotations are converted by the compiler into a JSON format, allowing runtime control applications to introspect both control and data path constructs.

Architecturally, the P4TC runtime API is inspired by the REST paradigm, employing resource-oriented paths as nouns and a refined set of verbs. The verbs follow CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) principles and include specialized extensions for event publish-subscribe functionality. By using “paths” to target specific datapath objects, the API remains agnostic regarding the nature of those objects – implying a control application does not need to change for multitudes of P4 programs.

Speaker

For more than twenty years, Jamal Hadi Salim has been a leader in the evolution of networking and Software-Defined Networking (SDN). He is a major contributor to the Linux kernel networking subsystem and the current maintainer of the Traffic Control (tc) subsystem. Currently, he leads the P4TC initiative, which enables P4 programs to run directly within the Linux kernel.

His previous leadership roles include serving as the chair for the IETF SDN working group on Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES). During his tenure, he developed a ForCES implementation used in large-scale telecommunications and authored multiple SDN standards. Currently, Jamal is concentrating on the performance of AI/ML, with a specific emphasis on networking protocols and infrastructure.