An FPGA-based coprocessor for ATM firewalls

An agile firewall coprocessor is described that is based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. This implementation of the firewall enables a high degree of traffic selectability yet avoids the usual performance penalty associated with IP level firewalls. This approach is applicable to high-speed broadband networks, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks are addressed in particular. Security management is achieved through a new technique of active connection management with authentication. Past approaches to network security involve firewalls providing selection based on packet filtering and application level proxy gateways. IP level firewalling was sufficient for traditional networks but causes a severe performance degradation in high speed broadband environments. The approach described in this paper discusses the use of an FPGA-based front end processor that filters relevant signaling information to the firewall host while at the same time allowing friendly connections to proceed at line speed with no performance degradation.