Numerous programmable alternatives to network processing have emerged in the past few years to meet the current and future needs of network equipment. They all promise various trade-offs between performance and flexibility. In this paper we attempt to understand these new network processing alternatives. We present five major aspects of network processor architectures: approaches to parallel pr...

Network processing is becoming increasingly challenging to the network architects and engineers in terms of hardware design and application development due to an increase in packet processing complexity and constantly evolving protocol standards. New inventions in the transmission medium such as DWDM, SDH and GigaEthernet increase bandwidth capacity of the network. Meanwhile, more network-orien...

In this paper, we first discuss the need for network processors. Consequently, relying on a “program to program” communications model, we briefly describe the functions that are found in the seven OSI layers and classify them using functional requirement criteria for a network processor. Subsequently, we summarize the current state of the art commercially developed network processors. Based on ...

Number of internet users is increasing day by day. Demands for new application are also increasing. It is possible to create a network processor based on user’s demands. This paper shows some details about softwares which help in writing code for NPs. Some brief information about NPs is also shown in this paper, which is currently in market.

The fault-tolerance is an important research topic in the study of distributed systems. To cope with the influence from faulty processors, reaching a common agreement at the presence of faults before performing some special tasks is essential. Therefore, the Byzantine Agreement (BA) problem has drawn more and more of the researchers’ attention as they explore deeper and deeper into the world of...

This paper argues that network processors can play an important role in the implementation and the deployment of active networks. The balance between hardware and software supplied with network processors addresses the demand for performance and programmability in active networks. The paper introduces network processors and discusses their relationship with active networks in general. Furthermo...

Network processors have been developed to ease the implementation of new network protocols in high-speed routers. Being embedded in network interface cards, they enable extended packet processing at link speed as is required, for instance, for active network nodes. Active network nodes start using network processors for extended packet processing close to the link. The control and configuration...

With the ever-increasing performance and flexibility requirements seen in today’s networks, we have seen the development of programmable network processors. Network processors are used both in the middle of the network, at nodes composing the backbone of the Internet, as well as at the edges of the network in enterprise class routers, switches, and host network interfaces. The application workl...

With the ever-increasing performance and flexibility requirements seen in today’s networks, we have seen the development of programmable network processors. Network processors are used both in the middle of the network, at nodes composing the backbone of the Internet, as well as at the edges of the network in enterprise class routers, switches, and host network interfaces. The application workl...