A Survey on the Programmable Data Plane: Abstractions, Architectures, and Open Problems

Programmable switches allow the packet processing behavior to be applied to transmitted packets, including the type, sequence, and semantics of processing operations, to be reconfigured on the fly in a systematic fashion. As such, programmable switches are the key to realize the next-generation of network services and applications, including software-defined networking, 5G, IoT, and massive-scale cloud computing. This paper presents a survey on the recent trends and issues in the design and implementation of programmable network devices, focusing on the prominent abstractions and architectures proposed, debated, realized, and deployed during the last 10 years. First we describe the anatomy of a programmable switch, then we highlight the most important pointers from the literature and cast different taxonomies for the field, and finally we sketch open issues and possible future research directions.