FPGA-based 100G Network Packet Broker with PCAP Filtering

9th March 2016

Bittware

Jordan Mulcare

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BittWare has collaborated with nCk Research, an innovative supplier of FPGA IP, to announce a 100G Network Packet Broker with PCAP Filtering at the RSA Conference. Implemented on BittWare's XUSP3S PCIe board featuring Xilinx's UltraScale Virtex FPGA, a live demo (on booth S326) of an application board showcases bi-directional 100G brokering/intercept with filtering at full line rate.

Many packet broker systems use PCAP processing expressions, but the point-to-point fabric from nCk Research is the first in the industry to optimise user inputs before loading resource settings into registers in the FPGA. This allows more rules to be packed into a smaller space and increases packet processing efficiency. In addition to filters, the packet broker IP also provides configurable support for RMON1, line rate policies, aggregation, decimation, and de-duplication.

Backward compatible with 10G/40G, the XUSP3S with nCk's IP supports up to four 100G ports and/or up to sixteen 10/25G ports on each board and can be configured to implement any combination in between, thus allowing users to deploy with some 10G today and easily upgrade to all 100G in the field. Up to 8 XUSP3S application cards can be installed in a BittWare TeraBox 4U rackmount system to handle up to 32x 100G ports and/or up to 128x 10/25G ports, allowing users to build virtually any packet processing solution with nCk network IP libraries; coupled with an optional PCIe DMA or NIC interface, it arguably becomes the most feature rich packet processing appliance in the industry.

"We're pleased to be able to work with nCk to add innovative and comprehensive application IP to our already well established FPGA platforms," said Ron Huizen, Vice President of Systems & Solutions, BittWare. "Their advanced filter IP component lets programmers use standard PCAP syntax to filter packets at full 100G line rate, and they can modify the filters on the fly- without having to reconfigure the FPGA. This, combined with nCk's other packet processing IP running on the most advanced FPGAs in the world, creates a compelling solution."

"FPGAs are the suitable choice for 100G at full line rate, and we're pleased to be able to partner with BittWare to build on their best-in-class FPGA platforms," said Matthew Chabot, President of nCk Research. "Their XUSP3S UltraScale board with support for quad 100G is a perfect fit."