Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification Algorithm

Packet classification is a ubiquitous and key building block for many critical network devices. However, it remains as one of the main bottlenecks faced when designing fast network devices. In this paper, we propose a novel Group Based Search packet classification Algorithm (GBSA) that is scalable,...

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Main Authors: O. Ahmed, S. Areibi, G. Grewal
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2013-01-01
Series:International Journal of Reconfigurable Computing
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/681894
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author O. Ahmed
S. Areibi
G. Grewal
author_facet O. Ahmed
S. Areibi
G. Grewal
author_sort O. Ahmed
collection DOAJ
description Packet classification is a ubiquitous and key building block for many critical network devices. However, it remains as one of the main bottlenecks faced when designing fast network devices. In this paper, we propose a novel Group Based Search packet classification Algorithm (GBSA) that is scalable, fast, and efficient. GBSA consumes an average of 0.4 megabytes of memory for a 10 k rule set. The worst-case classification time per packet is 2 microseconds, and the preprocessing speed is 3 M rules/second based on an Xeon processor operating at 3.4 GHz. When compared with other state-of-the-art classification techniques, the results showed that GBSA outperforms the competition with respect to speed, memory usage, and processing time. Moreover, GBSA is amenable to implementation in hardware. Three different hardware implementations are also presented in this paper including an Application Specific Instruction Set Processor (ASIP) implementation and two pure Register-Transfer Level (RTL) implementations based on Impulse-C and Handel-C flows, respectively. Speedups achieved with these hardware accelerators ranged from 9x to 18x compared with a pure software implementation running on an Xeon processor.
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spelling doaj-art-158bded3bfa044b592c8d3da0a894c492025-02-03T01:27:33ZengWileyInternational Journal of Reconfigurable Computing1687-71951687-72092013-01-01201310.1155/2013/681894681894Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification AlgorithmO. Ahmed0S. Areibi1G. Grewal2School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, CanadaSchool of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, CanadaSchool of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, CanadaPacket classification is a ubiquitous and key building block for many critical network devices. However, it remains as one of the main bottlenecks faced when designing fast network devices. In this paper, we propose a novel Group Based Search packet classification Algorithm (GBSA) that is scalable, fast, and efficient. GBSA consumes an average of 0.4 megabytes of memory for a 10 k rule set. The worst-case classification time per packet is 2 microseconds, and the preprocessing speed is 3 M rules/second based on an Xeon processor operating at 3.4 GHz. When compared with other state-of-the-art classification techniques, the results showed that GBSA outperforms the competition with respect to speed, memory usage, and processing time. Moreover, GBSA is amenable to implementation in hardware. Three different hardware implementations are also presented in this paper including an Application Specific Instruction Set Processor (ASIP) implementation and two pure Register-Transfer Level (RTL) implementations based on Impulse-C and Handel-C flows, respectively. Speedups achieved with these hardware accelerators ranged from 9x to 18x compared with a pure software implementation running on an Xeon processor.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/681894
spellingShingle O. Ahmed
S. Areibi
G. Grewal
Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification Algorithm
International Journal of Reconfigurable Computing
title Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification Algorithm
title_full Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification Algorithm
title_fullStr Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification Algorithm
title_full_unstemmed Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification Algorithm
title_short Hardware Accelerators Targeting a Novel Group Based Packet Classification Algorithm
title_sort hardware accelerators targeting a novel group based packet classification algorithm
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/681894
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AT sareibi hardwareacceleratorstargetinganovelgroupbasedpacketclassificationalgorithm
AT ggrewal hardwareacceleratorstargetinganovelgroupbasedpacketclassificationalgorithm