Compiler and hardware interactions to remove action dependencies in the data plane of a network forwarding element

A method of configuring a physical forwarding element comprising (i) a data plane comprising a data plane message processing pipeline and (ii) a parser for extracting fields of messages received at the data plane of the physical forwarding element, the data plane message processing pipeline comprising a plurality of data plane message processing stages, the method comprising:

• storing a set of action codes in an instruction memory in the data plane of the physical forwarding element, each action code identifying an operation to perform on a field of a message received at the data plane;
• determining action codes required to process each field of the message in each message processing stage;
• when a plurality of the action codes (i) are the same and (ii) operate on a same field of the message, configuring a data-plane processing unit of the physical forwarding element to concurrently perform the plurality of the action codes in a same data plane processing stage;
• and
• when the action codes are not the same, configuring the data-plane processing unit of the forwarding element to perform each of a plurality of action codes that operate on a same field of the message in a different processing stage.

A method of configuring a physical forwarding element comprising (i) a data plane comprising a data plane message processing pipeline and (ii) a parser for extracting fields of messages received at the data plane of the physical forwarding element, the data plane message processing pipeline comprising a plurality of data plane message processing stages, the method comprising:

• receiving a set of instructions from a control plane of the physical forwarding element to identify a set of actions to perform on the fields of messages received at the data plane of the physical forwarding element;
• storing a set of action codes in the instruction memory in the data plane of the physical forwarding element, the set of action codes comprising the actions identified in the set of instructions, each action code identifying an operation to perform on a field of a message received at the data plane;
• determining action codes required to process each field of the message in each message processing stage;
• and
• when a plurality of the action codes (i) are the same and (ii) operate on a same field of the message, configuring a data-plane processing unit of the physical forwarding element to concurrently perform the plurality of the action codes in a same data plane processing stage.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for configuring a physical forwarding element comprising (i) a data plane comprising a data plane message processing pipeline and (ii) a parser for extracting fields of messages received at the data plane of the physical forwarding element, the data plane message processing pipeline comprising a plurality of data plane message processing stages, the program executable by a processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

• storing a set of action codes in an instruction memory in the data plane of the forwarding element, each action code identifying an operation to perform on a field of a message received at the data plane;
• determining action codes required to process each field of the message in each message processing stage;
• and
• when a plurality of the action codes (i) are the same and (ii) operate on a same field of the message, configuring a data-plane processing unit of the physical forwarding element to concurrently perform the plurality of the action codes in a same data plane processing stage and during a same clock cycle by utilizing a same data-plane processing unit to perform the plurality of action codes.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for configuring a physical forwarding element comprising (i) a data plane comprising a data plane message processing pipeline and (ii) a parser for extracting fields of messages received at the data plane of the physical forwarding element, the data plane message processing pipeline comprising a plurality of data plane message processing stages, the program executable by a processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

• storing a set of action codes in an instruction memory in the data plane of the forwarding element, each action code identifying an operation to perform on a field of a message received at the data plane;
• determining action codes required to process each field of the message in each message processing stage;
• when a plurality of the action codes (i) are the same and (ii) operate on a same field of the message, configuring a data-plane processing unit of the physical forwarding element to concurrently perform the plurality of the action codes in a same data plane processing stage;
• and
• when the action codes are not the same, configuring the data-plane processing unit of the forwarding element to perform each of a plurality of action codes that operate on a same field of the message in a different processing stage.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for configuring a physical forwarding element comprising (i) a data plane comprising a data plane message processing pipeline and (ii) a parser for extracting fields of messages received at the data plane of the physical forwarding element, the data plane message processing pipeline comprising a plurality of data plane message processing stages, the program executable by a processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

• receiving a set of instructions from a control plane of the physical forwarding element to identify a set of actions to perform on the fields of messages received at the data plane of the physical forwarding element;
• storing a set of action codes in the instruction memory in the data plane of the physical forwarding element, the set of action codes comprising the actions identified in the set of instructions received from the control plane, each action code identifying an operation to perform on a field of a message received at the data plane;
• determining action codes required to process each field of the message in each message processing stage;
• when a plurality of the action codes (i) are the same and (ii) operate on a same field of the message, configuring a data-plane processing unit of the physical forwarding element to concurrently perform the plurality of the action codes in a same data plane processing stage.