Design and analysis of a dynamically reconfigurable network processor

Abstract

The combination of high-performance processing power and flexibility found in network processors (NPs) has made them a good solution for today's packet processing needs. Similarly, the emerging technology of reconfigurable computing (RC) has made advances in packet processing as well as other point-solution markets. Current NP designs offer configurable elements but generally do not use dynamic RC techniques for run-time reconfiguration. Incorporating RC into NP designs to enhance packet processing is a natural progression for both of these emerging technologies. This paper presents the simulation results of a novel design for a RCenhanced NP based on the Intel IXP1200 NIC design philosophy.The enhanced NP's performance is compared to that of the baseline NP in terms of three normalized traffic patterns and a case-study traffic pattern based on a military application. The results demonstrate that the enhanced NP significantly outperforms the baseline NP design in terms of latency for prioritized traffic that is non-uniform.

Dynamic Adaptive Self-Configurable Network Processor

“…The approach promotes conceptual uniformity and design portability across a wide variety of NP types while simultaneously exploiting hardware assists that are specific to individual NPs. Troxel, et al [ 4 ] have demonstrated the superior performance of enhanced NP over baseline NP for prioritized traffic that is non uniform. In the baseline experiments, the ME pipelines were not reconfigurable.…”

Adaptive architectures for an OTN processor

“…Parallel frame processing is common among high speed network processors, as it allows to decrease the processing units high operating frequency to a practical level [26,16]. The objective of this section is to define the foundation of a custom reconfigurable architecture for OTN overhead processing.…”

Supporting Runtime Reconfiguration on Network Processors

“…In addition, it is now becoming recognised [3] that runtime reconfiguration is a desirable characteristic of software for NPs. Runtime reconfiguration is useful for a number of applications, including dynamically extensible services [4], network resource management [5], configurable networkbased encryption [6], and offloading of processing [7].…”