This book, broken into four major sections — quick review of basics, packet header formats, etc.; traditional protocol processing systems, network processors, and an example network processor — covers concepts, principles, hardware and software architectures that underly the design and implementation of network systems such as switches, bridges, routers, NAT boxes, firewalls, intrusion, detection systems, and load balancers.

KEY TOPICS: Topics covered include how to build network systems, the concepts of classification and classification languages, algorithms and data structures, issues in scaling a network processor and an overview of the Intel network processor.

 MARKET: For professionals in the field of computer science, or anyone who has studied basic computer networking.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Overview.
2. Basic Terminology and Example Systems.
3. Review Of Protocols and Packet Formats.
4. Conventional Computer Hardware Architecture.
5. Basic Packet Processing: Algorithms and Data Structures.
6. Packet Processing Functions.
7. Software Architectures for Protocol Processing.
8. Hardware Architectures for Protocol Processing.
9. Classification and Forwarding.
10. Switching Fabrics.
11. Network Processors: Motivation and Purpose.
12. The Complexity of Network Processor Design.
13. Network Processor Architectures.
14. Issues in Scaling a Network Processor.
15. Examples Of Commercial Network Processors.
16. Languages Used for Classification.
17. Design Tradeoffs and Consequences.
18. Overview of The Intel Network Processor.
19. Embedded RISC Processor (StrongARM Core).
20. Packet Processor Hardware (Microengines And FBI).
21. Reference System and Software Development Kit (Bridal Veil, SDK).
22. Programming Model (ACE).
23. ACE Run-Time Structure and StrongARM Facilities.
24. Microengine Programming I.
25. Microengine Programming II.
26. An Example ACE.
27. Intel's Second Generation Processors