Abstract:
P4TG is a hardware-based traffic generator (TG)
running on the Intel Tofino™ 1 ASIC and was programmed using
the programming language P4. In its initial version, P4TG could
generate up to 10×100Gb/s of traffic and directly measure
rates, packet loss, and other metrics in the data plane. Many
researchers and industrial partners requested new features to be
incorporated into P4TG since its publication in 2023. With the
recently added features, P4TG supports the generation of packets
encapsulated with a customizable VLAN, QinQ, VxLAN, MPLS,
and SRv6 header. Further, generation of IPv6 traffic is added
and P4TG is ported to the Intel Tofino™ 2 platform enabling a
generation capability of up to 10×400Gb/s. The improvement
in user experience focuses on ease of operation. Features like
automated ARP replies, improved visualization, report generation,
and automated testing based on the IMIX distribution and
RFC 2544 are added. Future work on P4TG includes NDP to
facilitate IPv6 traffic, and a NETCONF integration to further
ease the configuration.
