Dynamic hardware forwarding pipeline compression

A computer program product, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable program instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:
• receive data associated with pipeline capabilities of the computer, the pipeline capabilities comprising a plurality of flow tables and allowable table transitions for each of the flow tables;
• configure a pipeline comprising the plurality of flow tables arranged in a sequential configuration;
• after configuring the pipeline comprising the plurality of flow tables in the sequential configuration, determine that a first table and a second table are mutually independent, wherein determining that the first flow table and the second flow table are mutually independent comprises determining that a path from the first flow table to the second flow table does not exist;
• and
• after the determination that the first flow table and second flow table are mutually independent, reconfigure the pipeline in accordance with the pipeline capabilities for data flow in the computer, the pipeline comprising a plurality of pipeline stages, a particular pipeline stage comprising the first flow table and the second flow table arranged in a parallel configuration.

A system, comprising:

• a storage device;
• and
• a processor in a network system communicatively coupled to the storage device, wherein the processor executes application code instructions that are stored in the storage device to cause the system to:
• receive data associated with pipeline capabilities of the processor, the pipeline capabilities comprising a plurality of flow tables and allowable table transitions for each of the flow tables;
• configure a pipeline comprising the plurality of flow tables arranged in a sequential configuration;
• after configuring the pipeline comprising the plurality of flow tables in the sequential configuration, determine that a first flow table of the flow tables and a second flow table are mutually independent, wherein determining that the first flow table and the second flow table are mutually independent comprises determining that a path from the first flow table to the second flow table does not exist;
• and
• after the determination that the first flow table and the second flow table are mutually independent, reconfigure the pipeline in accordance with the pipeline capabilities for data flow in the processor, the pipeline comprising a plurality of pipeline stages, a particular pipeline stage comprising the first flow table and the second flow table arranged in a parallel configuration.