Network processors (NPs) are emerging as a cost effective network element technology that can be more readily updated and evolved than custom hardware or ASIC-based designs. Moreover, NPs promise support for run-time reconfiguration of low-level networking software. However, it is notoriously difficult to develop software for NPs because of their complex design, architectural heterogeneity, and demanding performance constraints. In this paper we present a runtime component-based approach to programming NPs. The approach promotes conceptual uniformity and design portability across a wide variety of NP types while simultaneously exploiting hardware assists that are specific to individual NPs. To show how our approach can be applied in a wide range of types of NPs we characterise the design space of NPs and demonstrate the applicability of our concepts to the various classes identified. Then, as a detailed case study, we focus on programming the Intel IXP1200 NP. This demonstrates that our approach can be effectively applied, e.g. in terms of performance, in a demanding real-world NP environment.

Recently developed networked services have been demanding architectures that accommodate an increasingly diverse range of applications requirements (e.g. mobility, multicast, QoS), as well as system requirements (e.g. specialized processing hardware). This is particularly crucial for architectures of network systems where the lack of extensibility and interoperability has been a constant struggle, hindering the provision of novel services. It is also clear that to achieve such flexibility these systems must support extensibility and reconfigurability of the base functionality subsequent to the initial deployment. We present a component model that addresses these concerns. We also discuss the application of the component model in network processor-based programmable networking environments and discuss how our approach can offer a more deployable, flexible and extensible networking infrastructure.

We argue that currently developed software frameworks for active and programmable networking do not provide a truly generic approach to the development, deployment, and management of services. Furthermore, current systems are typically targeted at a particular level of the programmable networking design space (e.g. at low-level, in-band, packet forwarding; or at high-level signaling) and/or at a particular hardware platform. In addition, most existing approaches, while they may address the initial configuration of systems, neglect dynamic reconfiguration of running systems. In this paper we present a reflective component-based approach that addresses these limitations. We show how our approach is applicable at all system levels, can be applied in heterogeneous hardware environments (specifically, commodity PC-based routers and network processor-based routers), and supports both initial configuration and dynamic reconfiguration. We especially address the latter point; we show the viability of our approach in (re)configuring services on an Intel IXP1200 network processor-based router.