Network processors are new types of multithreaded multicore processors geared towards achieving both fast processing speed and flexibility of programming. The architecture of network processors considers many special properties for packet processing, including multiple threads, multiple processor cores on the same chip, special functional units, simplified ISA and simplified pipeline, etc. The architectural peculiarities of network processors raise new challenges for compiler design and optimization. Due to very high clocking speeds, the CPU memory gap on such processors is huge, making registers extremely precious. Moreover, the register file is split into two banks, and for any ALU instruction, the two source operands must come from different banks. We present and compare three different approaches to do register allocation and bank assignment. We also address the problem of sharing registers across threads in order to maximize the utilization of hardware resources. The context switches on the IXP network processor only happen when long latency operations are encountered. As a result, context switches are highly frequent. Therefore, the designer of the IXP network processor decided to make context switches extremely lightweight, i.e. only the program counter(PC) is stored together with the context. Since registers are not saved and restored during context switches, it becomes difficult to share registers across threads. For a conventional processor, each thread can assume that it can use the entire register file, because registers are always part of the context. However, with lightweight context switch, each thread must take a separate piece of the register file, making register usage inefficient. Programs executing on network processors typically have runtime constraints. Scheduling of multiple programs sharing a CPU must be orchestrated by the OS and the hardware using certain sharing policies. Real time applications demand a real time aware OS kernel to meet their specified deadlines. However, due to stringent performance requirements on network processors, neither OS nor hardware mechanisms is typically feasible. In this work, we demonstrate that a compiler approach could achieve some of the OS scheduling and real time scheduling functionalities without introducing a hefty overhead.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 62 pages. / Thesis (M.S.E.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The rapid growth of the Internet, in the last few years, has generated a need to enhance the existing IP networks in the areas of availability, dependability and scalability in order to provide a mission critical networking environment. In contemporary IP networks, data packets are routed as a function of the destination address and a single metric such as hop-count or delay. This approach tends to cause message traffic to converge onto the same link, which significantly increases congestion and leads to unbalanced network resource utilization. One solution to this problem is provided by Traffic Engineering (TE), which uses, bandwidth guaranteed, Explicitly Routed Label Switched Paths (ER-LSPs). Due to the dramatic increase in the backbone speeds, current research focuses more on traffic engineering with LSPs for clear control over the traffic distribution in the network. / ABSTRACT: However, the growing popularity of the Internet is driving the Internet Service Providers to adapt new technologies in order to support multiple classes of applications with different characteristics and performance requirements. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), which was proposed by the IETF provides essential facilities for traffic engineering and reliable QoS services for the Internet. MPLS networks provide the required flexibility for operators to manage their traffic with ER-LSPs. Even though conventional routing algorithms support the ER-LSP setup in MPLS networks, they are not efficient in link residual capacity information updates and limit resource utilization, which eventually leads to LSP failures and unbalanced network resource utilization. This thesis proposes a new architecture with a cluster based distributed routing algorithm to setup bandwidth guaranteed ER-LSPs in MPLS backbone networks. / ABSTRACT: The proposed routing algorithm confines the route discovery region in order to reduce the routing overhead and computes all possible routes from ingress node to egress node. Based on LSP requirements and network load conditions, the egress node selects the most suitable path from the available paths in order to setup the LSP. This routing scheme optimizes network resource utilization by evenly distributing traffic throughout the network. The Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) works in conjunction with the routing protocol for resource reservation and label distribution along the LSP. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The growth of mobile networks and the imminent deployment of third generation networks and services will require signalling networks to maintain their integrity during increased unanticipated traffic volumes. As signalling networks become larger and more complex, an analysis ofprotocol operation is necessary to determine the effectiveness of the current protocol implementation and to evaluate the applicability of the proposed enhancements. The objective of this study ,is to develop analytical models to analyse the impact of Signalling Transfer Point congestion on network performance when simple message discard schemes are used as the primary flow control mechanism, and to investigate suitable congestion and flow control mechanisms to help alleviate the congestion. Unlike previous studies, that are localised and only concentrate on the nodes around the congested entity, the models presented here examine the impact of network wide and focused overloads on the entire network. The study considers both the fixed-line and mobile network environments, and analyses the performance of the ISDN User Part and Mobile Application Part protocols. The call completion rate and location update success rate are used to measure performance, instead of message throughput, since these parameters provide a more appropriate measure of the grade-of-service and more accurately reflect the level of service provided to a customer. The steady state equilibrium models, derived here, can be used to quickly estimate the safe operating regions of a signalling network, while the transient models provide a more intuitive perspective of the traffic processes that lead to congestion . Furthermore, these models can be used to examine the network performance for different message priority schemes, routing algorithms, overload scenarios and network configurations. The performance of various congestion control mechanisms that incorporate non-linear throttling schemes is also evaluated, together with an examination of the impact of congestion on multiple user parts in a mobile network environment. Message priority schemes are found to offer little or no advantage in a fixed network environment, but in a mobile network they can be used to maintain the network's performance at an optimum level during periods of overload. Network performance is also improved if congestion controls block load-generating traffic at the initial onset of congestion and then gradually restore traffic as the performance improves . / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

Research in the field of random access protocols for narrow-band systems started as early as the 1970s with the introduction of the ALOHA protocol. From the research done in slotted narrow-band systems, it is well known that contention results in all the packets involved in the contention being unsuccessful. However, it has been shown that in the presence of unequal power levels, ore of the contending packets may be successful. Ibis is a phenomenon called capture. Packet capture has been shown to improve the performance of slotted narrow-band systems. Recently, much work has been done in the analysis of spread-spectrum ALOHA type code-division multiple access (CDMA) protocols. The issue of designing power control techniques to improve the performance of CDMA systems by reducing multiple access interference (MAl) has been a subject of much research. It has been shown that in the presence of power control schemes, the performance of spread-ALOHA CDMA systems is improved. However, it is also widely documented that the design of power control schemes capable of the ideal of compensation of radio propagation techniques is not possible for various reasons, and hence the imperfections in power control. None of the research known to the author has looked at capture in spread-ALOHA systems, and to a greater extent, looked at expressions for the performance of spreadALOHA systems in the presence of capture. In this thesis we introduce spread-ALOHA systems with capture as a manifestation of the imperfections in power control. We propose novel expressions for the computation of the perfonnance ofspread-ALOHA systems with capture. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

The emergence of portable terminals in work and living environments is accelerating the progression of wireless networks. A wireless ad hoc network is a new network concept where users establish peer-to-peer communication among themselves independently, in their small area. Since the wireless medium is a shared resource, it becomes an important design issue to efficiently allocate bandwidth among users. MAC (Medium Access Control) layer arbitrates the channel access to the wireless medium and is also responsible for bandwidth allocation to different users, therefore a large amount of research has been conducted on various MAC protocols for ad hoc wireless networks. This dissertation begins with a survey of existing wireless MAC protocols. The survey includes protocols designed for different network generations and topologies, classifying them based on architecture and mode of operation. Next, we concentrate on the MAC protocols proposed for distributed wireless networks. We propose a new MAC protocol based on a token-passing strategy; which not only incorporates the advantages of the guaranteed access scheme into the distributed type of wireless networks, but also the data rate and delay level QoS guarantees. Data rate QoS provides fairness into sharing of the channel, while delay level QoS introduces a flexible prioritized access to channels by adjusting transmission permission to the current network traffic activities. A simulation model for the protocol is developed and delay and throughput performance results are presented. To examine the efficiency and performance of the proposed MAC scheme in an ad hoc wireless environment, it is incorporated into the Bluetooth structured network. The model is then simulated in the Bluetooth environment and performance results are presented. Furthermore, an analytical model is proposed and an approximate delay analysis conducted for the proposed MAC scheme. Analytical results are derived and compared with results obtained from computer simulations. The dissertation concludes with suggestions for improvements and future work. / Thesis (M.Sc.-Engineering)-University of Natal, 2003.

Os backbones IP utilizam protocolos de roteamento do tipo estado do enlace para definir as rotas corretamente. Em situações de mudança na topologia, como uma falha, esses protocolos necessitam de um tempo para reagir e encontrar novas rotas. Durante esse tempo, as rotas ficam instáveis com alta taxa de pacotes perdidos e queda na confiabilidade do backbone. Esse trabalho propõe uma abordagem pró-ativa denominada Esquema de Caminhos Emergenciais Rápidos para auxiliar o protocolo de roteamento OSPF a reduzir a taxa de pacotes perdidos durante esse período. Essa abordagem realiza cálculos reutilizando a base de informações de roteamento do OSPF para gerar esses caminhos emergenciais, que são representados na tabela de encaminhamento através de marcas. Essas marcas são utilizadas então para guiar corretamente os pacotes no contorno de uma falha. Essa abordagem é avaliada em representações de topologias artificiais e reais, e também em simulação para analisar qual o ganho obtido na redução de pacotes perdidos em relação ao OSPF original. A abordagem desenvolvida demonstra resultados bastante satisfatórios em termos de extensão dos caminhos de recuperação utilizados e quantidade de informações extras adicionadas na tabela de encaminhamento em relação à abordagem concorrente. / IP network backbones use link state routing protocols to find correct routes. In face of a topology change, e.g. a failure, these protocols need some time to react to it in order to find new routes. During this time, the routes become unstable, causing high packet loss rate and depreciation of backbone reliability. This work presents a proactive approach named Fast Emergency Paths Schema to help the OSPF routing protocol during the convergence period in order to reduce packet loss rate. The approach conducts calculations reusing the routing information base of the OSPF in order to generate these emergency paths, which are represented in the forwarding table as marks. These are then used to guide the packets to correctly bypass a failure. The approach is evaluated by using various artificial and real topologies, and a simulation is also implemented in order to analyze the packet loss rate reduction in relation to the original OSPF. The analysis yielded satisfactory results in terms of the extension of the recovery paths used and of the amount of extra information added to the forwarding table in relation to the concurrent approach.

Os backbones IP utilizam protocolos de roteamento do tipo estado do enlace para definir as rotas corretamente. Em situações de mudança na topologia, como uma falha, esses protocolos necessitam de um tempo para reagir e encontrar novas rotas. Durante esse tempo, as rotas ficam instáveis com alta taxa de pacotes perdidos e queda na confiabilidade do backbone. Esse trabalho propõe uma abordagem pró-ativa denominada Esquema de Caminhos Emergenciais Rápidos para auxiliar o protocolo de roteamento OSPF a reduzir a taxa de pacotes perdidos durante esse período. Essa abordagem realiza cálculos reutilizando a base de informações de roteamento do OSPF para gerar esses caminhos emergenciais, que são representados na tabela de encaminhamento através de marcas. Essas marcas são utilizadas então para guiar corretamente os pacotes no contorno de uma falha. Essa abordagem é avaliada em representações de topologias artificiais e reais, e também em simulação para analisar qual o ganho obtido na redução de pacotes perdidos em relação ao OSPF original. A abordagem desenvolvida demonstra resultados bastante satisfatórios em termos de extensão dos caminhos de recuperação utilizados e quantidade de informações extras adicionadas na tabela de encaminhamento em relação à abordagem concorrente. / IP network backbones use link state routing protocols to find correct routes. In face of a topology change, e.g. a failure, these protocols need some time to react to it in order to find new routes. During this time, the routes become unstable, causing high packet loss rate and depreciation of backbone reliability. This work presents a proactive approach named Fast Emergency Paths Schema to help the OSPF routing protocol during the convergence period in order to reduce packet loss rate. The approach conducts calculations reusing the routing information base of the OSPF in order to generate these emergency paths, which are represented in the forwarding table as marks. These are then used to guide the packets to correctly bypass a failure. The approach is evaluated by using various artificial and real topologies, and a simulation is also implemented in order to analyze the packet loss rate reduction in relation to the original OSPF. The analysis yielded satisfactory results in terms of the extension of the recovery paths used and of the amount of extra information added to the forwarding table in relation to the concurrent approach.

Orientadores: Edson Moschim, Felipe Rudge / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T07:30:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MaiaJunior_Decio_M.pdf: 1427591 bytes, checksum: 104d0be2f7926f963a037d44ed4df46a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Um novo sistema para geração, chaveamento e roteamento de pacotes ópticos é descrito, visando aplicação em nós de redes ópticas de próxima geração (NGON). Os pacotes ópticos são compostos por um campo de cabeçalho em freqüência e um campo de carga útil digital de alta capacidade (~Gb/s). Os nós de chaveamento óptico incluem as funcionalidades de bloqueio, roteamento e retirada de pacotes, e são controlados por circuitos eletrônicos lógicos que rapidamente processam a informação contida no cabeçalho dos pacotes ópticos, permitindo baixa latência. O chaveamento é realizado pacote-a-pacote, e o tempo de reconhecimento do cabeçalho e chaveamento dos pacotes ópticos é de alguns micro-segundos (~ms) . Este sistema apresenta arquitetura simples, operação eficiente, e pode ser visto como uma solução atrativa nos aspectos técnicos e econômicos, aplicável a redes metropolitanas de acesso e, demonstra-se totalmente compatível com redes ópticas WDM / Abstract: A new system for the generation, switching and routing of optical packets is described, aimed for use in nodes of next-generation optical networks (NGON). The optical packets are composed of an in-band frequency tone header, and a high-capacity transparent digital payload (~Gb/s), occupying separate fields. The optical node switching action includes blocking, routing and drop functions, controlled by electronic logic circuits, performed on a packet-by-packet basis, with only the header information being processed. Total header processing and optical packet switching time is few micro seconds (~ms). This system is designed as a techno-economical solution for metro-access transport, having low latency and low packet loss, being fully compatible with WDM optical networks / Mestrado / Eletrônica, Microeletrônica e Optoeletrônica / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Orientador: Helio Waldman / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T02:43:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pelegrini_JeffersonUmebara_M.pdf: 9774514 bytes, checksum: 601fa158903b12a1dc6e0d70b70ae8d2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

This work develops an exact logical operation model to predict the performance of the all-optical shared-memory architecture (OSMA) class of packet switches and provides a means to obtain a reasonable approximation of OSMA switch performance within certain types of networks, including the Banyan family. All-optical packet switches have the potential to far exceed the bandwidth capability of their current electronic counterparts. However, all-optical switching technology is currently not mature. Consequently, all-optical switch fabrics and buffers are more constrained in size and can cost several orders of magnitude more than those of electronic switches. The use of shared-memory buffers and/or links with multiple parallel channels (channel grouping) have been suggested as ways to maximize switch performance with buffers of limited size. However, analysis of shared-memory switches is far more difficult than for other commonly used buffering strategies. Obtaining packet loss performance by simulation is often not a viable alternative to modeling if low loss rates or large networks are encountered. Published models of electronic shared-memory packet switches (ESMP) have primarily involved approximate models to allow analysis of switches with a large number of ports and/or buffer cells. Because most ESMP models become inaccurate for small switches, and OSMA switches, unlike ESMP switches, do not buffer packets unless contention occurs, existing ESMP models cannot be applied to OSMA switches. Previous models of OSMA switches were confined to isolated (non-networked), symmetric OSMA switches using channel grouping under random traffic. This work is far more general in that it also encompasses OSMA switches that (1) are subjected to bursty traffic and/or with input links that have arbitrary occupancy probability distributions, (2) are interconnected to form a network and (3) are asymmetric.