Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm hesitant to pick up another network protocol after OpenFlow. Lots of vendors claimed to support it, but only a handful took an honest shot at a decent implementation.
Just to be clear, p4 isn't actually a network protocol. It's a programming language, a DSL for programming network protocols. Small but significant difference between the two. But you're correct that it will require native support among router/switch vendors to be worth using. Actually, p4 is aimed a solving a lot of the problems with OpenFlow that led to the situation you describe: incomplete support by vendors of a…
Yes, thanks for the corrections you are absolutely correct.