ClickP4, a modular programming architecture for P4, is proposed to provide simplicity for building P4 programs, flexibility for orchestrating program features and reliability for enforcing network policies.

The framework of ClickP4 is decomposed into four aspects: The core of ClickP4, the runtime context for modules, the modules that implement various device features And the protocol aspect defining the supported protocol format and header parser.

The core defines the overall architecture of ClickP4, including the control nodes, the module inspector and the ClickP4 pipeline. Notice that the core doesn't provide any data plane functions.

The runtime context for modules should be provided by module developers who want to expose parameters of their modules to other modules. ClickP4 adopts a logical namespace and all components defined in the modules are private to the modules. So we propose the global runtime context to act as a bridge between modules. And these modules can read and write the fields defined in the context, which provides an 'unsafe' way to transmit parameters.

Modules are programmed by network operators who want to create new features to improve their networks. And there is a standard ingress function (a control flow in fact) for every module. Besides developing modules from scratch, we also provide some classic modules which can be reused.

The protocols defines the network protocol used in ClickP4.

$ git clone https://github.com/clickp4/behavioral-model
$ cd <bmv2 folder>
$ ./install_deps.sh
$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure
$ make -j8
$ sudo make install

or in the ClickP4 folder

$ make install-bmv2

Then you can have bmv2 in /bmv2

Please follow these steps to build run a ClickP4 demo.

1. Setup the virtual NICs and namespace.

$ cd <clickp4 folder>
$ make setup-veth

2. Setup a ClickP4 module and compile the ClickP4 source code.

$ echo "l3_switch" >>config/modules
$ make compile

Then the P4 binary code "clickp4.json" is generated into the "build" folder.

3. Run ClickP4 on BMv2 Firstly, check whether the "SWITCH_DIR" parameter in Makefile is right or change it to the right director.(TODO: This can be automatically done.)

make run

4. Populate L3_switch

make populate-l3

5. Test the reachability h1 and h2

$ sudo ip netns exec h1 bash
$ ping 10.0.0.2

Please go to SAMPLE-MODULE to find out more information.

Please go to SAMPLE-PROTOCOLnd out more information.