Publications on Dynamically Reconfigurable HardwareReconfigurable Network Group (In Reverse Chronological Order)(Also available as BIBTeX format) |
Abstract: Reconfigurable circuits running in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can be dynamically optimized for power based on computational requirements and thermal conditions of the environment. In the past, FPGA circuits were typically small and operated at a low frequency. Few users were concerned about high-power consumption and the heat generated by FPGA devices. The current generation of FPGAs, however, use extensive pipelining techniques to achieve high data processing rates and dense layouts that can generate significant amounts of heat. FPGA circuits can be synthesized that can generate more heat than the package can dissipate. For FPGAs that operate in controlled environments, heatsinks and fans can be mounted to the device to extract heat from the device. When FPGA devices do not operate in a controlled environment, however, changes to ambient temperature due to factors such as the failure of a fan or a reconfiguration of bitfile running on the device can drastically change the operating conditions. A protection mechanism is needed to ensure the proper operation of the FPGA circuits when such a change occurs. To address these issues, we have devised a reconfigurable temperature monitoring system that gives feedback to the FPGA circuit using the measured junction temperature of the device. Using this feedback, we designed a novel dual frequency switching system that allows the FPGA circuits to maintain the highest level of performance for a given maximum junction temperature. Our working system has been implemented and deployed on the Field Programmable Port Extender (FPX) platform at Washington University in St. Louis. Our experimental results with a scalable image correlation circuit show up to a 2.4x factor increase in performance as compared to a system without thermal feedback. Our circuit ensures that the device performs the maximum required computation while always operating within a safe temperature range.
Abstract: Applications for constrained embedded systems are subject to strict time constraints and restrictive resource utilization. With soft core processors, application developers can customize the processor for their application, constrained by resources but aimed at high application performance. With such freedom in the design space of the processor, however, comes complexity. We present here an automatic optimization technique that helps the developers with the processor microarchitecture customization.
A naive approach exploring all possible configurations is exponential with the number of parameters and hence is clearly infeasible, even with only tens of reconfigurable parameters. Instead, our approach runs in time that is linear with the number of parameter values, based on an assumption of parameter independence. This makes the approach feasible and scalable. For the dimensions that we customize, namely application runtime and hardware resources, we formulate their costs as a constrained binary integer nonlinear optimization program. Though the results are not guaranteed to be optimal, we find they are near-optimal in practice. Our technique itself is general and can be applied to other design-space exploration problems.
Abstract: This paper presents an innovative way to deploy Bitstream Intellectual Property (BIP) cores. By using standard tools to generate bitstreams for Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and a tool called PARBIT, it is possible to extract a partial bitstream containing a modular component developed on one Virtex FPGA that can be placed or relocated inside another Virtex FPGAs. The methodology to obtain the BIP cores is explained, along with details about PARBIT and Virtex devices.
Abstract: A circuit and an associated lightweight protocol have been developed to secure communication between a control console and remote programmable network devices. The circuit provides encryption, data integrity checking and sequence number verification to ensure confidentiality, integrity and authentication of control messages sent over the public Internet. All of these functions are performed directly in FPGA hardware to provide high throughput and near-zero latency. The circuit has been used to control and configure remote firewalls and intrusion detection systems. The circuit could also be used to control and configure other distributed network applications.
Abstract An extensible firewall has been implemented that performs packet filtering, content scanning, and per-flow queuing of Internet packets at Gigabit/second rates. The firewall uses layered protocol wrappers to parse the content of Internet data. Packet payloads are scanned for keywords using parallel regular expression matching circuits. Packet headers are compared to rules speci.ed in Ternary Content Addressable Memories (TCAMs). Per-flow queuing is performed to mitigate the effect of Denial of Service attacks. All packet processing operations were implemented with reconfigurable hardware and fit within a single Xilinx Virtex XCV2000E Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The singlechip .rewall has been used to filter Internet SPAM and to guard against several types of network intrusion. Additional features were implemented in extensible hardware modules deployed using run-time reconfiguration.
Abstract Tools and a design methodology have been developed to support partial run-time reconfiguration of FPGA logic on the Field Programmable Port Extender. High-speed Internet packet processing circuits on this platform are implemented as Dynamic Hardware Plugin (DHP) modules that fit within a specific region of an FPGA device. The PARBIT tool has been developed to transform and restructure bitfiles created by standard computer aided design tools into partial bitsteams that program DHPs. The methodology allows the platform to hot-swap application-specific DHP modules without disturbing the operation of the rest of the system.
Abstract This paper describes the design, implementation and performance of an open, high performance, dynamically extensible router under development atWashington University in St. Louis. This router supports the dynamic installation of software and hardware plugins in the data path of application data flows. It provides an experimental platform for research on programmable networks, protocols, router software and hardware design, network management, quality of service and advanced applications. It is designed to be flexible, without sacrificing performance. It supports gigabit links and uses a scalable architecture suitable for supporting hundreds or even thousands of links. The systems flexibility makes it an ideal platform for experimental research on dynamically extensible networks that implement higher level functions in direct support of individual application sessions.
Abstract A suite of tools called NCHARGE (Networked Configurable Hardware Administrator for Reconfiguration and Governing via End-systems) has been developed to simplify the co-design of hardware and software components that process packets within a network of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). A key feature of NCHARGE is that it provides a high-performance packet interface to hardware and standard Application Programming Interface (API) between software and reprogrammable hardware modules. Using this API, multiple software processes can communicate to one or more hardware modules using standard TCP/IP sockets. NCHARGE also provides a Web-Based User Interface to simplify the configuration and control of an entire network switch that contains several software and hardware modules.
Abstract Network routing platforms and Internet firewalls of the next decade will be radically different than the platforms of today. They will contain modular components that can be dynamically reconfigured over the Internet. But, unlike the active networks that are in the research labs today, these new platforms will not suffer from the performance penalty of processing packets in software. These platforms will implement routing, packet filtering, and queuing functions in reprogrammable hardware. The hardware of the system will evolve over time as packet pro-cessing algorithms and protocols progress. The granularity of the system will be configurable down to the level of the logic gates. These logic gates, and the interconnections be-tween them, will be reconfigurable over the Internet. These routers will enable new services to be rapidly deployed over the Internet and operate at the full rate of the an Internet backbone link.
Through the development of the the Field Programmable Port Extender (FPX), a platform has been built that demon-strates how networking modules can be used for rapid prototype and deployment of networking hardware. The platform includes high-speed network interfaces, multiple banks of memory, and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) logic. Applications have been developed for the FPX that include Internet packet routing, data queuing, and application-level data modification. The FPX is currently used as a component in an evolvable router.
Abstract A prototype platform has been developed that allows processing of packets at the edge of a multi-gigabit-per-second network switch. This system, the Field Programmable Port Extender (FPX), enables packet processing functions to be implemented as modular components in reprogrammable hardware. All logic on the on the FPX is implemented in two Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Packet processing functions in the system are implemented as dynamically-loadable modules. Core functionality of the FPX is implemented on an FPGA called the Networking Interface Device (NID). The NID contains the logic to transmit and receive packets over a network, dynamically reprogram hardware modules, and route individual traffic flows. A full, non-blocking, switch is implemented on the NID to route packets between the networking interfaces and the modular components. Modular components of the FPX are implemented on a second FPGA called the Reprogrammable Application Device (RAD). Modules are loaded onto the RAD via reconfiguration and/or partial reconfiguration of the FPGA.
Through the combination of the NID and the RAD, the FPX can individually reconfigure the packet processing functionality for one set of traffic flows, while the rest of the system continues to operate. The platform simplifies the development and deployment of new hardware-accelerated packet processing circuits. The modular nature of the system allows an active router to migrate functionality from softare plugins to hardware modules.
Abstract Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are being used to provide fast Internet Protocol (IP) packet routing and advanced queuing in a highly scalable network switch. A new module, called the Field-programmable Port Extender (FPX), is being built to augment the Washington University Gigabit Switch (WUGS) with reprogrammable logic. FPX modules reside at the edge of the WUGS switching fabric. Physically, the module is inserted between an optical line card and the WUGS gigabit switch backplane. The hardware used for this project allows ports of the switch populated with an FPX to operate at rates up to 2.4 Gigabits/second. The aggregate throughput of the system scales with the number of switch ports.
Logic on the FPX module is implemented with two FPGA devices. The first device is used to interface between the switch and the line card, while the second is used to prototype new networking functions and protocols. The logic on the second FPGA can be reprogrammed dynamically via control cells sent over the network.
Abstract: This paper describes an architecture for a high performance active router. The system is designed as an open research platform, with a range of configuration options and possibilities for extension in both the software and hardware dimensions. The system is built around a scalable switch fabric and includes a general-purpose processor subsystem at each port, enabling flexible packet processing and peployment of flow-specific active plugins. Such a research platform is becoming an indispensiable tool for effective systems research in networking and distributed systems.
Abstract: Field-programmable Port Extender (FPX) is a general-purpose, reprogrammable platform that performs data processing in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs) hardware. The FPX extends operation of the Washington University Gigabit Switch (WUGS) by adding FPGA hardware at ingress and egress ports. As with the Smart Port Card (SPC), data packets can be actively processed by user-defined, reprogrammable modules as they pass though the device. Unlike the SPC, however, the FPX uses reprogramamble hardware, not software, to process the packets. The hardware-based processing allows the FPX to achieve multi-Gigabit per second throughput, even when performing deep processing of the packet payload. This manual summarizes how to insert the FPX into the Washington University Gigabit Switch, how to install the NCHARGE control software, how to initialize the system, and how to reprogram a user-defined module into the FPX over the network using the included web-based tools.
Abstract: Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can be partially reconfigured to implement Dynamically load-able Hardware Plugin (DHP) modules. A tool called PARBIT has been developed that transforms FPGA configuration bitfiles to enable DHP modules. With this tool it is possible to define a partial reconfigurable area inside the FPGA and download it into a specified region of the FPGA device. One ore more DHPs, with different sizes can be implemented using PARBIT.
Abstract: This thesis presents the design and implementation of the multicast, input-buffered Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch for use with the iPOINT testbed. The input-buffered architecture of this switch is optimal in terms of the memory bandwidth required for the implementation of an ATM queue module. The contention resolution algorithm used by the iPOINT switch supports atomic multicast, enabling the simultaneous delivery of ATM cells to multiple output ports without the need for recirculation buffers, duplication of cells in memory, or multiple clock cycles to transfer a cell from an input queue module. The implementation of the prototype switch is unique in that it was entirely constructed using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. A fully functional, five-port, 800 Mbps ATM switch has been developed and currently serves as the high-speed, optically interconnected, local area network for a cluster of Sun SPARCstations and the gateway to the wide-area Blanca/XUNET gigabit testbed. Through the use of FPGA technology, new hardware-based switching algorithms and functionality can be implemented without the need to modify hard-wired logic. Further, through the use of the remote switch manager, switch controller, and FPGA controller, the management, operation, and even logic functionality of the iPOINT testbed can be dynamically altered, all without the need for physical access to the iPOINT hardware.
Based on the existing prototype switch, the design of the FPGA-based, gigabit-per-second ``Any-Queue'' module is presented. For this design in its maximum configuration, up to 256 queue modules can be supported, providing an aggregate throughput of 180 Gbps. Further, the design of a 16-port, 11.2 Gbps aggregate throughput, switch fabric is documented that can be entirely implemented using only eight FPGA devices.
In addition to the design of the switch module, this thesis describes the supporting components of the iPOINT testbed, including the network control and application software, the hardware specifications of the switch interface, and the device requirements of the optoelectronic components used in the testbed. VHDL and schematics of the switch hardware and C/C++ source code for the supporting systems are included.