In the previous article #003 "Are you P4 compliant ?" we exposed a setup where RARE/freeRouter was controlling BMv2 P4 dataplane called simple_switch_grpc. In this article we replace the open source BMv2 target by a commercial virtual target provided by INTEL/BAREFOOT. As a side note, we will show that this setup can be integrated with real networks. (with inherent software limitations)
Requirement
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Overview
I'm repeating the core message from #003: For those who are not familiar with data plane programming and especially with P4, "P4 is a domain-specific programming language for specifying the behaviour of the dataplanes of network-forwarding elements." (from p4.org) in short it helps you to write a "program specifying how a switch processes packets".
Article objective
In this article we'll using freeRouter setup deployed in #003 and replace bmv2/simple_switch_grpc providing freeRouter P4Lang's dataplane by INTEL BAREFOOT/bf_switchd. Actually the effective dataplane is ensured by INTEL/BAREFOOT virtual bf_switchd model running RARE P4 program called: bf_router.p4.
Diagram
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#004 ] - Cookbook
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In our example we will use the OpenNetworkLinux KVM image (ONL9) this is the recommended build from INTEL/BAREFOOT for SDE-9.2.0.
and we add a bridge network interface bridged to or our laptop RJ45 connection.
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In that section, you'll need to get access to INTEL/BAREFOOT Software Development Environment. For Research & Academia institution, you can apply here in order to become a FASTER member and access to INTEL/BAREFOOT resources. You can find here, a document installing INTEL/BAREFOOT SDE on ONL for a WEDGE100BF32X system. In our case, we are setting up the following environment:
Just for the sake of example, SDE 9.2.0 is installed in root home directory:
TOFINO RARE bitbucket is a private repository. It is currently being reworked in order to make it public as per INTEL/BAREFOOT decision to grant make P4 code related to TOFINO architecture public. (It is thus inaccessible for now but will be opened to the public soon opened.)
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FreeRouter uses 2 configuration files in order to run, let's write these configuration files for R1 in ~/freeRouter/etc
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Verification
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Verification
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╭─[7:07:41]floui@debian[1] ~/freeRouter/etc
╰─➤ telnet localhost 2323
Trying ::1...
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
welcome
line ready
freerouter# |
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p4-freerouter#sh run
hostname p4-freerouter
buggy
!
vrf definition v1
exit
!
interface ethernet0
description freerouter@P4_CPU_PORT[veth251]
no shutdown
no log-link-change
exit
!
interface sdn1
description freerouter@sdn1[enp0s9]
mtu 9000
macaddr 0072.3e18.1b6f
vrf forwarding v1
ipv4 address 192.168.1.131 255.255.255.0
ipv6 address fd7d:a59c:650b::666 ffff:ffff:ffff:fff0::
ipv6 enable
no shutdown
no log-link-change
exit
!
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server telnet tel
security protocol telnet
no exec authorization
no login authentication
vrf v1
exit
!
server p4lang p4
export-vrf v1 1
export-port sdn1 1 0
interconnect ethernet0
vrf v1
exit
!
client tcp-checksum transmit
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end |
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p4-freerouter#show interfaces summary interface state tx rx drop ethernet0 up 10616 9243 0 sdn1 up 10340 9069 0 |
| title | Connectivity IPv4/IPv6 check for freeRouter |
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hostname tna-freerouter
buggy
!
!
vrf definition v1
exit
!
interface ethernet0
description freerouter@P4_CPU_PORT[veth251]
no shutdown
no log-link-change
exit
!
interface sdn1
description freerouter@sdn1[enp0s9]
mtu 9000
macaddr 0072.3e18.1b6f
vrf forwarding v1
ipv4 address 192.168.0.131 255.255.255.0
ipv6 address 2a01:e0a:159:2850::666 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::
ipv6 enable
no shutdown
no log-link-change
exit
!
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server telnet tel
security protocol telnet
no exec authorization
no login authentication
vrf v1
exit
!
server p4lang p4
export-vrf v1 1
export-port sdn1 0 10
interconnect ethernet0
vrf v1
exit
!
client tcp-checksum transmit
!
end |
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tna-freerouter#sh int sum | ||||||
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p4-freerouter#ping 192.168.1.131 /vrf v1 pinging 192.168.1.131, src=null, cnt=5, len=64, tim=1000, ttl=255, tos=0, sweep=false !!!!! result=100%, recv/sent/lost=5/5/0, rtt min/avg/max/total=0/0/0/0 p4-freerouter#ping 192.168.1.1 /vrf v1 interface pinging 192.168.1.1, src=null, cnt=5, len=64, tim=1000, ttl=255, tos=0, sweep=false !!!!! result=100%, recv/sent/lost=5/5/0, rtt min/avg/max/total=3/5/10/28 | ||||||
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state tx rx drop
ethernet0 up 89955 128007451 0
sdn1 up 87291 127572417 0 |
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Conclusion
In this article you:
- had a demonstration of how to integrate freeRouter into a local area network (Similar to article #002)
- However instead of using pcapInt you are now using a software P4 dataplane from P4lang project: bmv2
- BMv2 simple_switch_grpc target is used an run RARE router.p4
- communication between freeRouter control plane and bmv2 is ensured by pcapInt via veth pair [ veth250 - veth251 ]
- This communication is possible via RARE forwarder.py based on GRPC P4Lang P4Runtime python binding
- In this example the BMv2 P4 switch has only 1 dataplane interface that is bound to enp0s9 VM interface exposed to the local network as a bridged interface
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Conclusion
In this article you:
- had a demonstration of how to integrate freeRouter into a local area network (Similar to article #002)
- However instead of using bmv2 we used a INTEL/BAREFOOT P4 dataplane called: TOFINO (bf_switchd)
- TOFINO bf_switchd target is running RARE bf_router.p4
- communication between freeRouter control plane and TOFINO is ensured by pcapInt via veth pair [ veth250 - veth251 ]
- This communication is possible via RARE bf_forwarder.py based on GRPC P4Lang BfRuntime python binding
- In this example the TOFINO bf_switchd P4 virtual switch model has only 1 dataplane interface that is bound to enp0s3 VM interface exposed to the local network as a bridged interface
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This essential paradigm is used to ensure communication between freeRouter and TOFINO bf_switchd P4 dataplane. It is ensured by pcapInt binary from freeRouter net-tools that will bind freeRouter socket (veth251@locathost:22710) to a virtual network interface (veth250@localhost:22709) connected to CPU_PORT 64.
bf_forwarder.py is a simple python script based on GRPC client BfRuntime python library.
freeRouter is doing all the control plane route computation and write/modify/remove message entry via BfRuntime so that P4 entries are created/modified/removed accordingly from P4 tables
While TOFINO bf_switchd virtual model target is a very good choice for packet processing algorithm validation on TOFINO platform, the virtual model is not a target for production use. We will see in next articles how we can reach TREMENDOUS traffic throughput required by Internet Service Provider's use cases. Indeed, while with the model we can validate algorithm accuracy, traffic transfers achieved have a very low throughput. (I could barely make my setup described above working)
In a subsequent article we will demonstrate how we can create with RARE/freeRouter/TOFINO TNA architecture, a service provider/carrier grade router that technically is able to switch 3.3 Tbps of traffic (line rate) using EdgeCore WEDGE100BF32X hardware switch.
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This essential paradigm is used to ensure communication between freeRouter and BMv2 P4 dataplane. It is ensured by pcapInt binary from freeRouter net-tools that will bind freeRouter socket (veth251@locathost:22710) to a virtual network interface (veth250@localhost:22709) connected to CPU_PORT 64.
forwarder.py is a simple python script based on GRPC P4Runtime python library. freeRouter is doing all the control plane route computation and write/modify/remove message entry via P4Runtime so that P4 entries are created/modified/removed accordingly from P4 tables
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