P4 Programming Mini-Labs

This repository contains beginner-to-intermediate level mini-labs written in the P4 language for learning and practicing Software-Defined Networking concepts.

Labs

• Basic Forwarding: Forward packets based on MAC addresses.
• Learning Switch: Dynamically learn source addresses.
• Firewall Rules: Block packets based on IP rules.
• Custom Header Parsing: Add and parse new protocol headers.

Requirements

• P4 compiler (p4c)
• Behavioral Model v2 (bmv2)
• Mininet (optional for testing)

Setup

# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/Bryan-Ndum/p4-programming-labs.git
cd p4-programming-labs

Install System Packages

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y git cmake g++ python3-pip autoconf automake libtool libssl-dev

Install the P4 Compiler (p4c)

git clone https://github.com/p4lang/p4c.git
cd p4c
sudo apt install -y bison flex libgmp-dev libboost-dev libboost-iostreams-dev libboost-graph-dev llvm-dev libgc-dev
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Install BMv2 (Behavioral Model v2)

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/p4lang/behavioral-model.git
cd behavioral-model
sudo apt install -y libnanomsg-dev libzmq3-dev libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler \
libprotoc-dev protobuf-c-compiler libprotobuf-c-dev thrift-compiler libthrift-dev
./install_deps.sh
./autogen.sh
./configure
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Install Mininet for Network Emulation

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/mininet/mininet.git
cd mininet
sudo ./util/install.sh -a

Install Scapy for Packet Crafting

pip3 install scapy