Slicing networks with P4 hardware and software targets
Eric Hauser, Manuel Simon, Henning Stubbe, Sebastian Gallenmüller, Georg Carle · 2022
Running applications over a shared network may lead to unwanted impairments or performance impacts. To avoid these effects, the partitioning of network resources is an integral aspect of effective 5G networks. These virtually partitioned networks or slices allow the provisioning of network resources to guarantee a specific service quality to dedicated virtual networks. Programmable network devices, pushed by new languages such as P4, with their intrinsic flexibility, present themselves as a promising technique to realize slicing. This paper explores three approaches to network slicing and their respective implementation on a P4 soft- and hardware network device. We focus our effort on investigating P4 primitives that do not require the features of a specific P4 device but are available across different P4 targets. Based on our findings, we provide target-specific guidelines minimizing the impact of P4-based slicing for software and hardware targets alike.