Program Patterns in P4 Programs

Laczkó, Zsófia and Tejfel, Máté (2026) Program Patterns in P4 Programs. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Applied Informatics. Líceum Kiadó, Eger, pp. 169-181. ISBN 9789634963271

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Abstract

Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors (P4) [2] is an open-source domain-specific programming language, which is primarily developed to describe algorithms that determine the forwarding of network data packets. In this research we defined and analysed positive (recommended) and negative (to be avoided) programming patterns in P4 codes. The defined templates were examined by static methodology. We have implemented an analyser program for the investigation of the patterns, integrated in P4Query [7], which is a static analyser tool for P4. Our analyser is able to recognise certain positive or negative templates, as well as provide feedback to developers about patterns found in their code. During the research the analyses that are already in the P4Query tool were utilized, and a new module was created built on them. Primarily, the syntax tree and the control flow graph built from the source code was used. The goal of the paper is to reduce the number of errors in P4 codes and to demonstrate which recurring solutions support or hinder the correct and effective processing of data packets.

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