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P4 Server Administration Documentation | 2026.1

# Network requirements

P4 Server communicates with clients over TCP/IP and can operate on both local and wide area networks. When planning your network configuration, ensure that connectivity, latency, and security requirements are addressed early, especially for distributed teams and remote users.

At a minimum, your network environment should meet the following requirements:

### TCP connectivity

P4 Server listens on a TCP port (for example, `1666` by default). Ensure this port is open between the server and all clients, proxies, replicas, and integrations.

### Firewall and routing considerations

Firewalls must allow bidirectional TCP traffic between P4 Server components. If your deployment spans network zones or sites, verify that routing rules do not introduce unnecessary latency.

### Bandwidth and latency

P4 Server is sensitive to network latency, particularly for large file transfers and metadata‑heavy operations. For remote or geographically distributed users, consider using proxies, replicas, or commit/edge servers to reduce WAN traffic.

### WAN optimization and compression

P4 Server supports compression at the network layer, which can improve performance over slower or higher‑latency connections.

### Secure connections

For production environments, use SSL/TLS encrypted connections and restrict network access to trusted hosts.

To learn more about network and performance tuning, see Optimizing P4 Server performance

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