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The P4 Programming Language: Connecting, Configuring, and Running the First Test Application

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Introduction

The P4 programming language is gaining popularity in the networking industry. It is considered the next step in the evolution of SDN networking.

Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors (P4) is an open-source, high-level programming language for network devices. It defines how data plane devices (switches, routers, network cards, etc.) process packets.

Before the P4 version, vendors had total control over the functionality supported on the network. Silicon vendors controlled the rollout of new features, and it took a long time (sometimes even years) to bring them to market… This is because a chip redesign is usually required.

What happened after the implementation of P4? You'll learn about that later in this article.

Why Are More And More People Turning To P4?

P4 proved to be a complete game-changer and turned the traditional model around 180 degrees. Changes made by application developers and network engineers, instead of taking years, can be made in just minutes!

P4 allows you to have a real impact on what the network does and how it does it. Properly used, P4 will increase the efficiency of network resources to better handle service workloads.

Getting Started with P4 Capable Network Switch

If you're thinking about switching to P4 but have no idea how to connect and configure it, you're in the perfect place!

We have designed 3 programs to help you take your first steps with a P4 capable network switch, which are appropriately suited to your skill level and current needs. Each has a separate goal and targets different audiences. All this to save a lot of your time and nerves.

SwitchON P4 Service

If you are a Systems or Application Engineer who has received your switch, and you need help or want to make sure someone is watching over your shoulder as you get your new system is up and running with the first "Hello World" scenario, then this is the solution for you.

The SwitchON P4 service will help you get started with a P4 capable network switch. The aim of this training session is to guide you through the initial set-up and operation of your switch.

We will guide you from unpacking the switch to running your first test application, while demonstrating the major features of their first exposure to a P4 development platform.

The entire course takes about 3 hours, which, in our experience, is a comfortable pace at which to achieve the course goals.

The session content is designed to cover all the steps from unboxing to running a first viable test application. Of course, depending on how experienced the Engineer is, we can skip the early stages and move straight to the connection and set-up phase.

For more information click here.

SwitchON+ P4 Service

Similar to the case above - if you are a Systems or Application Engineer who has received your switch, and you want to be guided or assisted whilst you get your new system up and running with your first real-world P4 application, then this SwitchON+ P4 Service is for you.

Hands-on is always the best learning scenario, but this is not always possible. When a system is not available to the Engineer, then we can use one of our test systems to run through the same processes.

SwitchON+ adds more in-depth coverage of some important development and production topics. Such as:

  • building the SDE with different P4 selection profiles,
  • interfacing with your application (gRPC),
  • Network Operating System options
  • P4 application exposure.
You do not need to have any experience with this environment. We will guide you through the entire process, all the way to running the real-world P4 application! In this case, the course takes about 6 hours.

For more information click here.

Switch WorkShop P4 Service

Switch WorkShop P4 Service is ideally suited to the Systems or Applications Engineer (individual or teams not greater than six participants) who are about to embark on the development of a P4-based system or application.

While participants should ideally have some P4 exposure, it is not strictly necessary as the focus of the workshop will be on design.

The goal of the workshop session is to fast-track your design strategy and explore the critical aspects of your development together.

Remember: P4 is just a language for implementing a design. One of our several value-adds is to bridge the real-world gap between what is theoretically possible in P4 and what is actually possible on Tofino-based platforms.

In this case, we will agree with the participants on the structure of the workshop. In the absence of specific requests, the 3-day workshop will be divided into several focused sessions. According to the table below:

Session Plan

1-day

  • Introduction and planning for the workshop.
  • Deep dive into system/application concept and high-level requirements.
  • Presentation and analysis of first-glance strategies and mechanisms of the P4 platform that may address high-level requirements.
  • Arbitrated discussion focusing on the suitability of the platform for design and on any circumvention or alternate strategies where relevant.
  • Planning for the next two days includes design aspects that require special focus and the deliverables that should come out of the workshop.

2-day

  • Develop design of primary strategies and mechanisms carefully allotting time segments to a high-priority set and avoid getting sucked into implementation.

3-day

  • Develop design of primary strategies and mechanisms carefully allotting time segments to a high-priority set and avoid getting sucked into implementation.
  • Drill down on unfinished top priority requirements.
  • Consolidate the work done and the design decisions – plan next steps.

For more information click here.

Read More About Open Networking

Read More About STORDIS Switch Services

Want to Learn More About it?

Get in touch with us and we will answer all of your questions.

Contact Us
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Webinar Recording Available: “Fast Performance with Extensive Programmability – Intel Tofino 2” with Intel, Edgecore and STORDIS

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On September 30th, 2021 we held a webinar together with our partners Intel® and Edgecore Networks on the Intel® Tofino™ 2. The live webinar was quite a success with a great turnout and some very interested attendees with many great questions on the Intel® Tofino™ 2.

We would like to thank everyone involved in making that webinar possible and would also say a “thank you” to everyone that registered and attended the webinar for the great time and experience. However if you were not able to attend the webinar or have missed registering for it – do not worry: The full webinar has been recorded and can be accessed on BrightTALK, after a quick registration.

See below, for a quick summary of what you can expect from the webinar and the links to the webinar recording.

Also don’t forget that we are still running our special A&R discount for the Intel® Tofino™ 2 based Edgecore DCS810 (AS9516-32D). You can get more information here.

Blazing Fast Performance with Extensive Programmability – Intel Tofino 2

Webinar Title:

Blazing Fast Performance with Extensive Programmability – Intel® Tofino™ 2

About the Webinar:

During the webinar, you’ll learn about the latest innovation from Intel’s Programmable Switch team, the P4 programmable Tofino 2, and how Edgecore Networks is leveraging this new technology in an innovative new switch design aimed at hyperscale data center operators and use cases, including network telemetry, layer 4 load balancing, network packet broker and more. Finally, you will learn about STORDIS and their Academia & Research Program dedicated for P4 and other Programs which are filling the Open Networking gaps.

Presenters:

  • John Demay, Business Development and Sales, Intel Corporation,
  • Matthew Roman, VP Marketing and Product Management, Edgecore Networks,
  • Łukasz Łukowski, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, STORDIS,

When:

, on BrightTALK

10% Discount on Hardware

Register now and benefit from a special 10% discount* for the Intel® Tofino™ 2 based Edgecore DCS810 (AS9516-32D), by mentioning the code “SDG_A&R_AS9516” in your quote request.

*Special conditions apply for that discount:
  • You need to be registered and approved in our A&R Program and the webinar
  • Limited to 2 units per customer/project
  • Purchase Order must be with STORDIS, before .

Register for the A&R ProgramRequest a Quote

Want to Learn More About it?

Get in touch with us and we will answer all of your questions.

Contact Us
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Webinar Invitation: “Fast Performance with Extensive Programmability – Intel Tofino 2” with Intel, Edgecore and STORDIS

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You may have already noticed that the first Intel® Tofino™ 2 based network switches are starting to become available, for example Edgecore’s AS9516-32D (also known as DCS810), the world’s first 32x 400G P4 programmable switch.

The Intel® Tofino™ 2 ASIC brings P4 programmability to a whole new level, providing a bandwidth of up to 12.8 Tb/s – double the bandwidth than the first-gen Intel® Tofino™.

If you want to learn more about the Intel Tofino 2, we would like to invite you to our upcoming webinar, which we are organizing together with our partners Intel® and Edgecore:

Blazing Fast Performance with Extensive Programmability – Intel Tofino 2

Webinar Title:

Blazing Fast Performance with Extensive Programmability – Intel® Tofino™ 2

About the Webinar:

During the webinar, you’ll learn about the latest innovation from Intel’s Programmable Switch team, the P4 programmable Tofino 2, and how Edgecore Networks is leveraging this new technology in an innovative new switch design aimed at hyperscale data center operators and use cases, including network telemetry, layer 4 load balancing, network packet broker and more. Finally, you will learn about STORDIS and their Academia & Research Program dedicated for P4 and other Programs which are filling the Open Networking gaps.

Presenters:

  • John Demay, Business Development and Sales, Intel Corporation,
  • Matthew Roman, VP Marketing and Product Management, Edgecore Networks,
  • Łukasz Łukowski, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, STORDIS,

When:

, on BrightTALK

Read More About the Live Webinar

Register for the Webinar

10% Discount on Hardware

Register now and benefit from a special 10% discount* for the Intel® Tofino™ 2 based Edgecore DCS810 (AS9516-32D), by mentioning the code “SDG_A&R_AS9516” in your quote request.

*Special conditions apply for that discount:
  • You need to be registered and approved in our A&R Program and the webinar
  • Limited to 2 units per customer/project
  • Purchase Order must be with STORDIS, before .

Register for the A&R ProgramRequest a Quote

Want to Learn More About it?

Get in touch with us and we will answer all of your questions.

Contact Us
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Upcoming P4 Hackathon eagerly anticipated by the Community

The one-day event focusing on P4 is organized by the P4 Education Working Group in collaboration with KPN, STORDIS, and AAGlenn Internetworking Company, and takes place in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The event intends to bring various P4 users of all levels in the open-source community together to share the development of innovative data plane applications, tools and infrastructure.

The organizer and host will be Aaron Glenn from AAGlenn Internetworking Company, operating in the US and Berlin, Germany. The experienced telecommunications engineer provides network design, development, deployment, and various operation services to his customers.

“It’s great to see both industry and academia excited about the possibilities of programmable networks. I’m hoping to continue sharing ideas, gaining new knowledge, and meeting more people with an interest in the P4 language. With nearly 60 attendees from all around Europe registered for this second hackathon event, I am excited to have an even better time hanging out and writing code! The continued support of our generous sponsors will mean a third and fourth are coming soon,” says Aaron Glenn, Managing Director of AAGlenn Internetworking Company.

P4 enthusiast and senior director of product management and marketing at Barefoot Networks (now an Intel company) Prem Jonnalagadda will attend the hackathon to join the collective activity. “It’s a pleasure for me to be a part of this event, to meet new people from the European P4 community, see familiar as well as new faces, and chat about open and programmable networking solving critical connectivity challenges faced by network operators. It is amazing to see the continuing rapid growth of the P4 community with more and more engineers eager to learn to program in P4. P4 has become the domain-specific programming language for networking and it is wonderful to see it being adopted all over the world,” he says.

STORDIS’ valuable partner Barefoot Networks provided the Barefoot Tofino ASIC, which is the P4-programmable heart of the new STORDIS Advanced Programmable Switches (APS). The switches are the first Tofino-powered Open Networking switches to be OCP Accepted™ and the first units to support Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and 1Gb throughput among other versatile features, delivering significant business advantage in various fields of the industry.

“Programmability is key to new open source technologies and gains more and more relevance within the industry. STORDIS supports the transition of the market from a traditionally closed environment to a flexible, efficient, standards-based system. It is a great honor for us to work together with the P4 Education Workgroup and to help them promote these advancements,” says Alexander Jeffries, CEO of STORDIS and sponsor of the event.

In the context of STORDIS ACADEMY, the German-based company organizes unique training courses worldwide to provide insights into the latest Open Networking technologies, such as data plane programming with P4 and Barefoot’s P4 Studio™ Software Development Environment (SDE). The courses are most suitable for software developers and architects tasked with design and development of data plane and control plane programs for the modern networking equipment.

For more information about the P4 programming language, visit our P4 Programming Language page or the P4 Language Consortium.

If you would like to participate in upcoming P4 training courses, please contact us or visit STORDIS ACADEMY.

You will find more information about AAGlenn Internetworking Company at AAGico Berlin

You will find more information about Barefoot Networks, an Intel company, on our Barefoot partner page or at BAREFOOT.

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P4 Training Course in July 2019

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July 16th – 19th, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Our latest P4 training course was again incredibly inspiring! Vladimir Gurevich from Barefoot Networks hosted the four-day course on data plane programming in P4, Tofino device architecture, and P4 Studio™ Software Development Environment (SDE). Just like the previous time, the course generated strong interest and the participants were highly motivated to learn and apply their knowledge.

P4 programming language is becoming increasingly popular among companies and developers. After a successful P4 training course in June with more than thirty attendees, the recent course hosted by STORDIS ACADEMY in collaboration with Barefoot Academy again nearly sold out. With the course, STORDIS strives to give all interested parties the chance to learn about data plane programming in P4, Tofino device architecture and P4 Studio™ Software Development Environment (SDE), and ensure a proficient realization to meet everyone’s expectations.

Twenty-seven programmers, developers and system engineers from all over Europe took part in the second P4 Training Course BA-102 hosted by Vladimir Gurevich, Director of Customer Training and Education at Barefoot Networks. BA-102 is an introductory course designed to cover a variety of material, which allows participants to easily read, understand, and modify switch.p4_16 and related APIs. Excerpts from switch.p4_16 were discussed and used as examples throughout the course. The course provided the theoretical basis to data plane development and gave the participants time for practical application of the material.

Following the previous course in June, we aspired to improve the structure of the course and amended the schedule to give every participant more time to engage in the subject and try out the theoretical content of the course. ‘I am very proud of all those motivated students; they become more and more involved each time and are already very well prepared since the first day. And just as every time, it was a pleasure to work together with STORDIS and Delta Networks to make this happen,’ Vladimir says.

Further training courses are scheduled to take place in Autumn 2019:

  • Nov. 12th – 15th

 You will find the registration form and further information about the course content at STORDIS ACADEMY.

If there are any related questions, please contact enquiries@stordis.com

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P4 Training Course BA-102

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The follow-up P4 training course was a huge success! It took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on June 11th to 14th 2019, and gave an introduction to data plane programming in P4, Tofino device architecture and P4 Studio™ Software Development Environment (SDE).

After a great start to the P4 training course – BA-101 Introduction to Data Plane Development with Tofino and Capilano™ SDE hosted by STORDIS in collaboration with the Barefoot Academy and Delta Networks last year – it was time to continue programming with the subsequent BA-102 course. A total of thirty-two participants from various universities and companies attended the follow-up course BA-102 on June 11th – 14th in Amsterdam. This intensive four-day training course offered an introduction to data plane programming in P4, Tofino device architecture and P4 Studio™ Software Development Environment (SDE), including Barefoot APIs and development workflows. The event was a huge success and entirely met the expectations of the participants.

BA-102 is an introductory course, designed to cover a variety of material, which allows participants to easily read, understand, and modify switch.p4_16 and related APIs. Excerpts from switch.p4_16 were discussed and used as examples throughout the course. The course provided the theoretical basis to data plane development and gave the participants enough time for practical application of the material. All of the participants were actively engaged in the subject and the four days were filled with an exchange of knowledge and information, and many new experiences.

The course was hosted by Vladimir Gurevich, Director of Customer Training and Education at Barefoot Networks since 2017. Vladimir imparts profound in-depth knowledge and delivers highly efficient and sophisticated trainings all around the globe. “It was a great pleasure to meet all those engaged people from all over Europe to talk with them about data plane development. They became involved quite quickly and kept on trying everything out. The seminar itself was, as always, very well managed, thanks to our organizer STORDIS. And thanks to Delta, who made the premises available,” he said.

Just like the first training course, the subsequent BA-102 course generated strong interest and received far more requests than available places, so another P4 training course will be held on July 16th – 19th. If you would like to learn about the capabilities of P4 or expand your knowledge on data plane programming, please register at STORDIS ACADEMY.

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Aaron Glenn on the P4 programming language

Aaron Glenn, network enthusiast and managing director of AAGICo Berlin UG, talks to Ethan Banks and Drew Conry-Murray of Packet Pushers about the innovative and beneficial deployment of P4 within Open Networking infrastructures. Aaron gives a profound, in-depth insight into the programming language, explains in detail how P4 works, and presents use cases.

P4 (programming protocol-independent packet processors) is a domain-specific language which is used to specify the packet behavior and unambiguously define the forwarding plane regardless of the underlying hardware, while the program defines the packet headers and the processing logic. It enables the reconfiguration of parsing and the processing, while the hardware (target), which can be an ASIC, an FPGA or a NIC, acts as a compiler, providing information and instructions via match-action tables.

Although P4 might appear to be a general-purpose programming language, it is not; neither is it a successor of OpenFlow. In general, it doesn’t provide the abstraction to create packets due to its boundaries to computation and memory consumption, and it only specifically enables the user to modify the packets on a very low level (from Layer 2 to Layer 4). It can represent any packet forwarding behavior, not only for Barefoot Tofino, which is also the first hardware switching ASIC that natively supports P4.

In the presentation, Aaron explains the program and architectures, the main components of a P4 program, and how it functions within the network environment. He illustrates the essential elements of P4 and various use cases of P4Runtime, the control plane interface to P4 for fixed-functions devices. He conlcuded with how to get access to P4 and provides valuable web links to online tutorials.

 

 

Packet Pushers

Packet Pushers is an independent community of IT practitioners and vendors who provide focused, profound and practical content covering networking, data center design, virtualization, and general technology trends. The community is primarily built around a successful podcast (up to 250K downloads per month), but they also operate a blog and a forum to share practical and technical information and evaluation. A major part of the work relies on sponsorship, enabling the members to perform essential research and ensure valuable and high-grade content.


STORDIS Advanced Programmable Switches with Barefoot Tofino ASIC

If you would like to learn more about the beneficial use of P4, the Tofino-based STORDIS APS (Advanced Programmable Switches) and how they can enhance your own enterprise network, you are very welcome to visit us at www.stordis.com or contact us directly at enquiries@wptest.stordis.de or +49 (0) 711 34 21 58 0.

Disclaimer: STORDIS was not involved in the production of the webinar with Aaron Glenn. The webinar was published initially by Packet Pushers at https://bit.ly/2X91yKo on March 25th 2019.

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P4 Hackathon in Frankfurt

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The first P4 Hackathon organized by the P4 Education Working Group was a great success! It was held in Frankfurt, Germany, on March 29th 2019 and P4 users of all levels were invited to join the workshops and tutorials for P4.

The purpose of this event was to encourage the development of innovative, proof-of-concept data plane applications, and to support the open-source community through the development of tools and infrastructure. The organizing committee of the P4 Hackathon, Noa Zilberman (P4 Education Working Group), Robert Soulé (P4 Education Working Group) and Aaron A. Glenn (AAGlenn Internetworking Company) featured a full day of P4 and P4Runtime learning, discussion, and hacking.

P4 is a protocol-independent programming language used to examine, define, and customize the packet forwarding behavior within network devices. P4 is open, easy to access and was rapidly adopted by the industry since its creation in 2013.

As committed sponsor of the P4 Hackathon, STORDIS was delighted to be a part of this venture. It is our ambition to continuously drive innovation in the area of Open Networking forward, and it was a pleasure to get in contact with everyone, and create new collaborations between and within academia and industry. As the Open Networking Expert, we support the development and distribution of P4, and we are proud to be the exclusive partner of Barefoot Networks in Europe.

 

STORDIS P4 Programmable Switches

To exploit the full potential of P4, STORDIS designed a powerful network switch deploying a Barefoot Tofino ASIC. The field-proven architecture of Tofino is the industry’s first-ever P4-programmable network switching ASIC. The recently launched BF2556X-1T and the BF6064X-T deliver a breakthrough performance, full programmability, flexibility of network stack, and upgradability.

STORDIS Advanced Programmable Switches with Barefoot Tofino™ ASIC

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Barefoot Preps for 5G and IoT With Its Tofino Chip

Interesting article about Barefoot Networks on SDxCentral.

“One of Barefoot’s most-touted capabilities is that it enables programmability of the forwarding plane. “With the programmable chip what you can actually do is assign the resources to only the pieces you want (…)”, said Sylvanus “Prem” Jonnalagadda”. ” Tofino could also replace traditional load balancing. Layer 4 load balancing is typically done by appliances that are very expensive. But with Tofino that functionality can be embedded in the switch itself instead of having an expensive middle box.”

Would you like to know more about Barefoot, Tofino or the P4 Language Consortium (P4.org)? Then get in touch with us.

Make sure to follow STORDIS on LinkedIn for news and updates about Open Networking.

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