A flexible design of network devices using reconfigurable content addressable memory

The content addressable memory is a memory unit that uses content matching instead of addresses. content addressable memory are used in different networking, telecommunications and storage applications because of their parallel, fast search capabilities. This paper presents a new method (called array method) for designing Reconfigurable content addressable memory (RCAM). The behavior of the new method was described using VHDL and implemented using FPGA technique. Then, the performance of the method was compared to other traditional content addressable memory design methods. The proposed RCAM is configured and used as the main part of different network security devices and units (Ethernet Address Filtering Unit, WLAN MAC Address Filtering Unit ,firewall on chip, QoS packet classification unit, Routing Table Search Unit and Network Intrusion Detection System search unit). The successful implementations of the suggested RCAM prove its high flexibility to be used in different network applications.