Using NDN and P4 For Effective Traffic Management in Tactical Networks

Named Data Networks (NDN) is an emerging data centric networking paradigm that provides a much needed efficient and resilient communication model for tactical networks. P4 is a programming language that allows for customization of packet processing at the forwarding plane in routers and switches. In this work, we combine NDN and P4 to build an architecture for traffic management in tactical networks. The architecture defines a policy for traffic management that is reflective of mission objectives and stores it in JSON as Named Data objects. We use PSync to synchronize the policy across multiple platforms to ensure policy consistency. The policy can name several actions to take for a given traffic flow, such as DSCP marking, compression, and WAN acceleration, which are then activated/configured by an enforcement engine.