EFFICIENT MULTIMATCH PACKET CLASSIFICATION AND LOOKUP WITH TCAM

摘要

TERNARY CONTENT-ADDRESSABLE MEMORY is BECOMING A COMMON EXTENSION TO NETWORK PROCESSORS, AND ITS CAPABILITY AND SPEED MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE FOR HIGH-SPEED NETWORKS. THE AUTHORS' TCAM-BASED SCHEME PRODUCES MULTIMATCH CLASSIFICATION RESULTS WITH ABOUT 10 TIMES FEWER MEMORY LOOKUPS THAN A PURE SOFTWARE APPROACH. IN ADDITION, THEIR SCHEME FOR REMOVING NEGATION IN RULE SETS SAVES UP TO 95 PERCENT OF THE TCAM SPACE USED BY A STRAIGHTFORWARD IMPLEMENTATION.