A Language Engineering Approach to Support the P4 Coding Ecosystem

Abstract

P4 as a language is becoming a de facto standard to support the definition of Software Defined Networks (SDNs). In this context, the Kaloom-TELUS-ETS Research Chair on DevOps for SDNs is investigating how the DevOps paradigm from the software engineering community can be leveraged and adapted to the specificities of SDNs. We propose to the P4 community an integrative Language Server-based approach that comes with a reference implementation. To date, our reference implementation is integrated into the NeoVim editor and offers services such as syntax highlighting and variable renaming. From the analysis point of view, we propose a basic type compatibility validation and a demonstration of how external tooling can be integrated. We propose in this talk to describe this reference architecture that aims to support the integration of various approaches and put the developer back at the centre of the development ecosystem, following the DevOps principles of continuous feedback.