P4Query: Static analyser framework for P4

Abstract

There are many important tasks in a conventional software development process which can be supported by different analysis techniques. P4 is a high level domain-specific language for describing the data plane layer of packet processing algorithms. It has several uncommon language elements and concepts that often make the analysis of P4 programs a laborious task. The paper presents P4Query, an analysis framework for the P4 language that enables the specification of different P4-related analysis methods in a generic and data-centric way. The framework uses an internal graph representation which contains the results of applied analysis methods too. In this way, the framework supports the rapid implementation of new analysis methods in a way where the results will be also easily reusable by other methods.