An Efficient Design of High Speed Network Security Platform using Network Processor

The explosive growth of internet traffic and the increasing complexity of the functions performed by network nodes have given rise to a new breed of programmable micro-processors called network processors. Network processors are emerging a programmable alternative to the traditional ASIC-based solutions in scaling up the data plane processing of network services. This paper proposes a design method and a hardware architecture of high speed network security platform using the IXP2850 network processor. It describes why the Intel IXP2850 network security equipment is an attractive platform for developing the protocol.