IP Cores

High-Speed Interconnect

• Interlaken
• 40G/100G High-Speed Ethernet

Classification

• Network Search Engine
• CAM Core

Traffic Management

• Traffic Policing
• DDR2 SDRAM Packet Buffer

Network Search Engine IP Cores

Overview

Sarance᾿s IPFE Network Search Engine Core provides a scalable FPGA or ASIC based solution for implementing IPv4 and IPv6 Longest Prefix Match (LPM) searches.  In addition to IP forwarding databases, the IPFE is also capable of supporting any exact match search application including, but not limited to, L2 VLAN/MAC lookups, ATM table lookups, MPEG header lookups, or flow table lookups.

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IP Longest Prefix Match Searches

The performance of a high speed router or switch is often limited by the capability of the IPv4 & IPv6 forwarding function, especially as forwarding databases grow in size.  The IP forwarding function resolves the Longest Prefix Match (LPM) of an IP address in the forwarding database and returns a match pointer that is used to determine the next hop behavior. 

Sarance Technologies᾿ IPv4 & IPv6 Forwarding Engine (IPFE) has been developed specifically to address the need for large IPv4 and IPv6 forwarding and Virtual Router Forwarding (VRF) tables in current and future generation Internet routers and switches. The large size of these tables, often consisting of over 1 Million entries, makes using Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) search engines a prohibitively expensive and power hungry option.  Sarance᾿s proprietary IPFE solution is based on FPGA and SDRAM technology and provides users with an extremely cost effective and flexible alternative to TCAMs . 

Exact Match Searches

Performing an exact match search is a basic function of any Media Access Control (MAC) bridge.  IEEE 802.1Q, 801.1ad and 802.1ah standards define protocols for setting up Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) connections between multiple sites and pushing switches to the edge of the network.  The packet forwarding operation involves searching for the packet?s destination MAC address and one or two VLAN IDs in a routing table to determine the outgoing port.

For small route tables or modest performance targets, the search algorithm can be implemented in software running on a network processor; however, as the performance requirements increase, or as the route table itself grows to a large size, it becomes necessary to relieve the processor of the search task.  Content Addressable Memories (CAM) have traditionally been used to offload packet processors of the search function, however as route tables grow in size, CAM based solutions become prohibitive in terms of both cost and power consumption.