P4 (programming language)
P4 is a programming language designed to allow programming of packet forwarding dataplanes. In contrast to a general purpose language such as C or python, P4 is a domain-specific language with a number of constructs optimized around network data forwarding. P4 is an open-source, permissively-licenced language and is maintained by a non-profit organization called the P4 Language Consortium. The language was originally described in a SIGCOMM paper in 2014 titled “Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors” – the alliterative name shortens to “P4”.