IoT Article Analysis of P4 and XDP for IoT Programmability in 6G and Beyond David Carrascal 1,† , Elisa Rojas 1,*,† , Joaquin Alvarez-Horcajo 1,† , Diego Lopez-Pajares 2 and Isaías Martínez-Yelmo 1 1 Departamento de Automática, Escuela Politécnica Superior, University of Alcala, 28801 Alcalá de Henares, Spain;
[email protected] (D.C.);
[email protected] (J.A.-H.);
[email protected] (I.M.-Y.) 2 Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas Telemáticos, E.T.S de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Technical University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] † These authors contributed equally to this work. Received: 19 November 2020; Accepted: 10 December 2020; Published: 15 December 2020 Abstract: Recently, two technologies have emerged to provide advanced programmability in Software-Defined Networking (SDN) environments, namely P4 and XDP. At the same time, the Internet of Things (IoT) represents a pillar of future 6G networks, which will be also sustained by SDN. In this regard, there is a need to analyze the suitability of P4 and XDP for IoT. In this article, we aim to compare both technologies to help future research efforts in the field. For this purpose, we evaluate both technologies by implementing diverse use cases, assessing their performance and providing a quick qualitative overview. All tests and design scenarios are publicly available in GitHub to guarantee replication and serve as initial steps for researchers that want to initiate in the field. Results illustrate that currently XDP is the best option for constrained IoT devices, showing lower latency times, half the CPU usage, and reduced memory in comparison with P4.