Shared Memory Multiprocessor Architectures for Software IP Routers

In this paper, we propose new shared memory multiprocessor architectures and evaluate their performance for future Internet Protocol (IP) routers based on Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) and Cache Coherent Non-Uniform Memory Access (CC-NUMA) paradigms. We also propose a benchmark application suite, RouterBench, which consists of four categories of applications representing key functions on the time-critical path of packet processing in routers. An execution driven simulation environment is created to evaluate SMP and CC-NUMA router architectures using this RouterBench. The execution driven simulation can produce accurate cycle-level execution time prediction and reveal the impact of various architectural parameters on the performance of routers. We ported the FUNET trace and its routing table for use in our experiments. We find that the CC-NUMA architecture provides an excellent scalability for design of high performance IP routers. Results also show that the CC-NUMA architecture can sustain good lookup performance even at a high frequency of route updates.