Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
internal header information is written in the egress interface queues (multiple
queues in case of broadcast/multicast packets). The output filter block is
responsible for scheduling and queuing, and retrieval of packet data from the
DDRAM and transmitting on the egress interface.
The performance of this architecture is only limited by 2 main factors:
lookup speed and DDRAM access. The lookup speed depends on the L2 or L3
forwarding table size and lookup algorithm, while DDRAM access may
introduce delays in case of small packet sizes.
The generic packet forwarding architecture can be extended with a COM
express based PC board, providing considerable processing power. This
extension opens up further application possibilities for the board. Such a
possible application is a Session Border Controller. Session Border
Controllers (SBCs) have evolved to address the wide range of issues that arise
when voice and multimedia services are overlaid on IP infrastructure. These
include a wide range of operations from packet level monitoring tasks through
flow level manipulation tasks to high level signaling processing tasks, all at
high speeds. These put high demand on both hardware and software. With our
C-board extended with a PC board a high performance SBC can be designed.
The key idea in this use case is the close interworking between the
software processing on the PC board and hardware processing on the FPGA
board. The low level processing handles the high-speed traffic and passes only
the network signaling traffic to the processor. The routing protocols and
forwarding control can be done just like in the previous case. An open
protocol like OpenFlow [16] can be used to control the hardware flow
processing.
6
Summary
The SCALOPES C-board is a versatile programmable platform capable of
handling 10Gbps Ethernet traffic. It provides a base platform for various
packet processing applications such as switching, routing filtering,
monitoring, etc. Its modular structure allows its extension with processing
cards to increase its applications with high-speed software processing as well.
The C-board is accompanied by a development environment to unlock its
full potential. The environment supports the development process from
design-space exploration and modeling in SystemC to modular design. It is
based on predefined hardware modules, from which the basic applications
(packet forwarding, DPI) can be constructed. The development environment
will also feature a graphical user interface, providing easy development for
customization. The scalability and low power requirements have been taken
into consideration for both hardware and software design. We have
demonstrated some major application fields for the hardware on use cases.
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