As the speed and complexity of data crossing networks steadily increases, network management becomes ever more difficult. Bangalore-based U&I System Design has developed a solution to monitor, analyze, and manage diverse high-speed data, based on an ASIC called NetMon on a chip (NOAC). The ASIC is housed on a PCI-card called Hardware Gigabit Netmon, which works with U&I’s Linux host-based network management application, called Spyderwatch, to provide network analysis and management in real time even at gigabit speeds.
The Hardware Gigabit Netmon has three modulesthe network interface module (NIM), the NOAC, and on-board SDRAM and CAM modules. The NIM uses standard ICs and transceivers that connect directly to the physical network. Where appropriate, this module can have a built-in network tap to allow a direct connection “in the middle of the line” without using external equipment. The SDRAM stores the incoming data from the NIM. The data is stored on the fly from the NIM into the appropriate slot in the SDRAM, to handle defragmentation of the IP packet. The CAM is preset with the search constraints and the mask to enable quick searching of the different filters to check for the best match. The NOAC chip controls the operation. It is currently implemented in FPGA. The NOAC design has been synthesized for 0.18 micron, and will be converted to an ASIC once volume demand for the product picks up.
"Packets on a network are very fragmented, and in a software-only solution typically the fragment itself is processed to extract the data for the aggregation table, which is updated as a new fragment is processed. But that solution adds a huge overhead," says Abhaya Deshmukh, director at U&I. The packet reassembler on the NOAC is hardwired, and the packet can be reassembled at the speed at which the data is coming in.
Developed using CORBA, Java, and C++, Spyderwatch enables the monitoring and analysis of all services that are transported over the network including the type of traffic, its volume and content. The data that is input from the Hardware Gigabit Netmon to Spyderwatch is already structured to facilitate this analysis. Since the monitoring is done passively using sniffer technology, the system places very little additional load on the network. Besides offering the Hardware Gigabit Netmon card along with Spyderwatch, U&I also plans to offer the card as a gigabit processing engine for other applications.
U&I System Design LtdFax (91) 80-346-0877
www.uiscpl.com
