Project Overview: Router for Academia Research & Education (RARE)

Abstract

In this paper, we give a brief overview of the GÉAN project Router for Academia Research & Education (RARE). Its objective is to create a modern open routing platform. It leverages the FreeRtr control plane and programmable data planes that aims to support Research and Education (R&E) specific use cases. RARE/freeRtr provides different data plane implementations that allow for a high degree of deployment flexibility. Most router features are developed with P4 for the software target BMv2, and where possible also for the Intel Tofino hardware target. Additionally, a DPDK-based data plane called P4DPDK for x86 platforms is also available that addresses use cases requiring lower bandwidth.