In-Network AR/CG Traffic Classification Entirely Deployed in the Programmable Data Plane: Unlocking RTP Features and L4S Integration

Note:

This paper has been submitted to the Netsoft 2025 Conference and was accepted!

AR/CG Flow classification + Packets Marking + L4S

This repository is going to run the Random Forest (RF) model in tofino 2 to identify the AR/CG flows & mark AR/CG packets with ECT(1) as shown in Fig.1. It paves the way for AR/CG to be routed through L4S Queue.

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Topology & Setup

To do the experiment, we use the below topology and setup to evaluate the model as shown in Fig.4.

In this topology, we have three componenets: (A) Tofino Switch, (B) Server 1, and (C) Server 2. To run the topology to reproduce the results, we must follow the order as below:

1. Compile and Run Tofino Switch (Section A)
2. Run Server 2 (Section C)
3. Run Server 1 (Section B)

(A) Compiling & Running P4 Code on Tofino 2 Switch

(A-1) Connect Tofino & Clone P4 Code

  ssh [username]@[IP]    # Replace your username & Tofino IP
  pass: xxxx             # Tofino password

  # Clone the Repository on your Tofino
  git clone https://github.com/dcomp-leris/ARCG-DP-Deployment.git
  cd ARCG-DP-Deployment/Tofino/V3

Output:

Cloning into 'ARCG-DP-Deployment'... remote: Enumerating objects: 308, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (76/76), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (61/61), done. remote: Total 308 (delta 22), reused 39 (delta 9), pack-reused 232 (from 1) Receiving objects: 100% (308/308), 6.04 MiB | 10.65 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (105/105), done.

(A-2) Compile the P4 Code in Tofino

  # Ensure you are in "~/ARCG-DP-Deployment/Tofino/V3" then
  ~/../p4_build.sh -p RF.p4

Output:

Using SDE /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4 Using SDE_INSTALL /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install Using SDE version bf-sde-9.13.4

OS Name: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS This system has 8GB of RAM and 8 CPU(s) Parallelization: Recommended: -j4 Actual: -j4

Compiling for p4_16/t2na P4 compiler path: /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/bin/bf-p4c P4 compiler version: 9.13.4 (SHA: 3b52315) (p4c-based) Build Dir: /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/build/p4-build/tofino2/RF Logs Dir: /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/logs/p4-build/tofino2/RF

Building RF CLEAR CMAKE MAKE INSTALL ... DONE

(A-3) Run the P4 code

  # Run compiled P4 code (RF) on Tofino2 (tf2)
  ~/../run_switchd.sh  -p RF --arch tf2

Output:

Using SDE /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4 Using SDE_INSTALL /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install Setting up DMA Memory Pool Using TARGET_CONFIG_FILE /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/share/p4/targets/tofino2/RF.conf Using SDE_DEPENDENCIES /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install Using PATH /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/bin:/home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/bin:/home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin Using LD_LIBRARY_PATH /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/lib:/home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/lib:/usr/local/lib:/home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/lib:/usr/local/lib kernel mode packet driver present, forcing kernel_pkt option! 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312205 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: system services initialized 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312291 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: loading conf_file /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/share/p4/targets/tofino2/RF.conf... 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312348 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: processing device configuration... 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312450 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - Configuration for dev_id 0 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312482 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - Family : tofino2 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312510 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - pci_sysfs_str : /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:05:00.0 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312537 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - pci_int_mode : 0 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312564 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - sds_fw_path : share/tofino_sds_fw/avago/firmware 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312592 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: processing P4 configuration... 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312660 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - coal_mirror_enable=0 coal_min=0 sessions_num=0 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312697 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - P4 profile for dev_id 0 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312724 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - num P4 programs 1 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312751 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - p4_name: RF 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312779 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - p4_pipeline_name: pipe 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312806 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - libpd: 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312833 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - libpdthrift: 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312860 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - context: /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/share/tofino2pd/RF/pipe/context.json 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312888 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - config: /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/share/tofino2pd/RF/pipe/tofino2.bin 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312916 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - Pipes in scope [ 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312943 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - 0 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312970 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - 1 2025-06-03 18:44:55.312997 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - 2 2025-06-03 18:44:55.313023 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - 3 2025-06-03 18:44:55.313049 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - ] 2025-06-03 18:44:55.313076 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - diag: 2025-06-03 18:44:55.313103 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - accton diag: 2025-06-03 18:44:55.313130 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - Agent[0]: /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/lib/libpltfm_mgr.so 2025-06-03 18:44:55.335540 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: library /home/leris/sde/bf-sde-9.13.4/install/lib/libpltfm_mgr.so loaded 2025-06-03 18:44:55.336830 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: agent[0] initialized Health monitor started 2025-06-03 18:44:58.303403 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - Device 0: Operational mode set to ASIC 2025-06-03 18:44:58.303506 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - Initialized the device types using platforms infra API 2025-06-03 18:44:58.303544 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - ASIC detected at PCI /sys/class/bf/bf0/device 2025-06-03 18:44:58.303637 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - ASIC pci device id is 272 (0x0110) 2025-06-03 18:44:58.392037 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - Skipped pkt-mgr init Starting PD-API RPC server on port 9090 2025-06-03 18:44:58.392927 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: drivers initialized /2025-06-03 18:45:17.790945 BF_PLTFM ERROR - ChkSum not matched for 15

2025-06-03 18:45:19.272961 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: dev_id 0 initialized 2025-06-03 18:45:19.273029 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: initialized 1 devices Adding Thrift service for bf-platforms to server 2025-06-03 18:45:19.273286 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: thrift initialized for agent : 0 2025-06-03 18:45:19.273323 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: spawning cli server thread 2025-06-03 18:45:19.273597 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: spawning driver shell 2025-06-03 18:45:19.273756 BF_SWITCHD DEBUG - bf_switchd: server started - listening on port 9999 bfruntime gRPC server started on 0.0.0.0:50052

    ********************************************
    *      WARNING: Authorised Access Only     *
    ********************************************

(A-4) Run the Controllr code

  bfshell> bfrt_python

  # Set the CP.py file address
  bfrt_python> %load /home/alireza/ARCG-DP-Deployment/Tofino/V3/CP.py

Output:

bfrt_python> %load /home/alireza/ARCG-DP-Deployment/Tofino/CP.py

    ...:             votes[key.strip()] = int(value.strip())
    ...: 
    ...:         # Use the BFRT API to add the entry
    ...:         bfrt.RF.pipe.Ingress.table_majority.add_with_trees_aggregation(
    ...:             metadata_classT1 = votes['t1'],
    ...:             metadata_classT2 = votes['t2'],
    ...:             metadata_classT3 = votes['t3'],
    ...:             metadata_classT4 = votes['t4'],
    ...:             metadata_classT5 = votes['t5'],
    ...:             majority        = votes['m']
    ...:         )

(A-5) Run Monitoring

To monitor the values, we can monitor the FlowID, PS, IPG, FS, IFG t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, host_ifg. run the monitoring.py. Open another terminal in Tofino2 and run:

python3 monitoring.py

Output:

Subscribe attempt #1
Subscribe response received 0
Connected to BF Runtime Server as client 0
Received RF on GetForwarding on client 0, device 0
The target runs the program  RF
Binding with p4_name RF
Binding with p4_name RF successful!!
FlowID, PS, IPG, FS, IFG t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, host_ifg
0, 3, 497673774, 0, 0, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,0.0

(A-6) Results

RF AR/CG Classifier + Automatic ECT Marking + Forwarding (L4S + Classic) Queues are running!

(B) Server 1

(B-1) Installation:

• Operating System (OS) Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS or later.
• Tcpreplay Installation
• Download AR/CG PCAPs

(B-2) Server1 Functions

• Check the Tcpreplay installation.
• Read the PCAPs
• Replay the PCAPs through the Interface connected to the Tofino 2

(B-4) Run the replay.sh

cd ./ARCG-DP-Deployment/server1
./replay.sh 

Output:

tcpreplay is already installed. Q1. Enter the name of the interface connected to Tofino2 (e.g., eth0)? [eth0] Q2. Enter the path to the PCAP folder (e.g., ./pcap_pool)? [./pcap_pools] Replaying ./pcap_pools/ar.pcap on interface eth0...

Note: This script asks two questions Q1 [interface] and Q2 [PCAP address] then starts to replaying the traffic.

(C)Server 2

(C-1) Installation

• Tshark

      sudo apt update
      sudo apt install -y tshark
  

• Python3

      sudo apt update
      sudo apt install python3
  

(C-2) Capturing the Received PCAPs

• Get the Interface to listen to it!
• Get the address and pcap file name to store in the local storage.
• Run the capturing.sh script

      cd ./ARCG-DP-Deployment/server2
      ./capturing.sh
  

  Output:

Q1. Enter the interface name to capture from (e.g., enp2s0np0)? [enp2s0np0] Q2. Enter output PCAP file path (default: ./my.pcap)? [./ar.pcap] Capturing on interface: enp2s0np0 Saving to file: ./ar.pcap Capturing on 'enp2s0np0' tshark: The file to which the capture would be saved ("./ar.pcap") 172.16.0.1 224.0.0.251 0 0 172.16.0.1 224.0.0.251 0 0

(C-3) INT

There is a prob INT packet to collect the queues (Classic & L4S) logs:

• Queue Latency(ns)
• Queue Occupancy (number of packets)
• Nodal Processing Time (ns) (Egress - Ingress)

This INT has sender.py & Receiver.py which should be run respectively.

(C-3-1) Run the receiver.py packets (Terminal 1)

    cd ./ARCG-DP-Deployment/INT 
    python3 receiver.py 0 300 # ID = 0 & Duration is 5 min = 300 s

Note: Received data is stored in the folder called data.

(C-3-2) Run the sender.py packets (Open other new Terminal 2)

cd ./ARCG-DP-Deployment/INT
python sender.py