FOX Networks worked with Barefoot Networks to demonstrate programmable forwarding plane technology within a broadcast network. Barefoot’s Tofino switch chip ran a P4 program written by FOX, implementing forwarding plane functions. The demonstration was supported by switch maker Stordis.
Increasingly, broadcast networks are converting to Internet Protocol (IP). The packetized Live IP technology gives them the potential to have a programmable forwarding plane in which a switch can manipulate packets and make forwarding decisions. P4-programmable forwarding planes enable use cases that are not possible with fixed-function switching silicon.
Thomas Edwards, VP of engineering and development at FOX Networks, gave this example: He said if you want to have the top two-thirds of a video image coming from a camera and the bottom one-third of the video image coming from a graphics device, you could combine those flows from a program written in P4.
Reported in the press.
