Sequence-preserving parallel IP lookup using multiple SRAM-based pipelines

SRAM (static random access memory)-based pipelined algorithmic solutions have become competitive alternatives to TCAMs (ternary content addressable memories) for high-throughput IP lookup. Multiple pipelines can be utilized in parallel to improve the throughput further. However, several challenges must be addressed to make such solutions feasible. First, the memory distribution over different pipelines, as well as across different stages of each pipeline, must be balanced. Second, the traffic among these pipelines should be balanced. Third, the intra-flow packet order (i.e. the sequence) must be preserved. In this paper, we propose a parallel SRAM-based multi-pipeline architecture for IP lookup. A two-level mapping scheme is developed to balance the memory requirement among the pipelines as well as across the stages in each pipeline. To balance the traffic, we propose an early caching scheme to exploit the data locality inherent in the architecture. Our technique uses neither a large reorder buffer nor complex reorder logic. Instead, a flow-aware queuing scheme exploiting the flow information is used to maintain the intra-flow sequence. Extensive simulation using real-life traffic traces shows that the proposed architecture with 8 pipelines can achieve a throughput of up to 10 billion packets per second, i.e. 3.2 Tbps for minimum size (40 bytes) packets, while preserving intra-flow packet order.