Virtualization in Programmable Data Plane: A Survey and Open Challenges

Programmable data plane (PDP) is an emerging technology for programming packet processing tasks by means of a domain-specific high-level language (e.g., programming protocol-independent packet processor (P4)) and programmable switch chips. Recently, several PDP virtualization schemes have been introduced to enable more flexible and elastic network management. In this article, we first give an overview PDP and P4. After that, existing PDP virtualization schemes are classified into hypervisor- and compiler-based approaches and their pros and cons are analyzed in detail. Finally, open challenges for PDP virtualization are identified and future research directions are presented.