The rapid increase of network traffic and network processing complexity requires the design of more efficient network devices. Specifically, devices located at edge and access nodes (e.g., edge routers and content switches) require a blend of performance and flexibility in order to meet the network processing requirements. A reconfigurable network processing platform is presented that can be adapted to diverse network processing requirements and traffic fluctuations.
The inherent FPGA's programmability at the software and hardware level is exploited to design high performance adaptive network devices such as edge routers and content switches. The performance evaluation of the systems shows that reconfigurable hardware-based network processing platforms are most suitable for edge, access and enterprise network devices, since they can efficiently meet these devices requirements in terms of performance, power and flexibility.