Network Processor Based High Speed Packet Classifier for Multimedia Applications

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to propose a low complexity Heuristic Based Application Specific Packet Classification (HASPC) algorithm that ensures wire speed packet classification to prevent the delay and loss of multimedia packets. With the exponential growth in the link capacity, diversified services offered by the Internet and the complexities of the packet routing algorithms, wire speed classification in each router has become a bottleneck at high speed interfaces. Embedded, Network Processors (NPs) have emerged as an aid to the router for effectively processing the packets with speed and flexibility. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been verified using Intel’s IXP 2400 NP simulator. The improvement in throughput of HASPC with respect to other existing algorithms varies from around 17–86%. The complexity involved is also independent of the packet size. Thus the proposed HASPC has better efficiency in supporting multimedia applications.