Modeling and analysis of IXP425 network processor

Abstract EN

There are mainly two kinds of network processor : coprocessors-centric model, and core-centric model.

In the coprocessors-centric, the data-plane is handled by coprocessors.

The core processes most of the data-plane packets yet offloading some tasks to coprocessors in the core-centric model.

The IXP is one of Intel network processor series which is a core-centric model.

They are optimized for home, small-to-medium enterprise, and networked embedded applications.

This work aims to design a module of IXP425 performing VPN.

The processing time for each stage is available in the datasheet of the IXP425.

The Markov chain and Omnet ++ has been adopted in this work to explore the system parameters and bottlenecks focusing on the buffer length and how to be optimized for each stage.

Single process programming is considered in the IXP425 operation.