One of the key advantages of p4 is that you don't have to use iptables. Instead p4 would compile down to a binary packet processor in either machine language, something like eBPF, or directly onto a hardware coprocessor on your NIC.
Compiling to iptables would be incredibly slow and miss the advantages. Plus, p4 is more general than iptables so many p4 programs could not be expressed as iptables.
Compiling to iptables would be incredibly slow and miss the advantages. Plus, p4 is more general than iptables so many p4 programs could not be expressed as iptables.