Building an Internet Router with P4Pi

Abstract

Building an Internet Router is a popular, hands-on project used to teach computer networks. However, there is currently no hardware target that allows students to develop the project in P4 without incurring significant cost or encountering FPGA knowledge barriers. This paper presents P4Pi as a target for the Building an Internet Router project. P4Pi is a platform for developing, testing, and evaluating P4 programs on a Raspberry Pi device. We describe the architecture of the router project on P4Pi, and discuss the practical aspects of running it as a class project. The P4Pi-based router project is low-cost and easy to adopt, enabling students to focus on their P4 programming skills and to evaluate their designs on a physical target through interoperability tests with their colleagues.