SSA: a power and memory efficient scheme to multi-match packet classification

New network applications like intrusion detection systems and packet-level accounting require multi-match packet classification, where all matching filters need to be reported. Ternary Content Addressable Memories (TCAMs) have been adopted to solve the multi-match classification problem due to their ability to perform fast parallel matching. However, TCAM is expensive and consumes large amounts of power. None of the previously published multi-match classification schemes is both memory and power efficient. In this paper, we develop a novel scheme that meets both requirements by using a new Set Splitting Algorithm (SSA). The main idea of SSA is that it splits filters into multiple groups and performs separate TCAM lookups into these groups. It guarantees the removal of at least half the intersections when a filter set is split into two sets, thus resulting in low TCAM memory usage. SSA also accesses filters in the TCAM only once per packet, leading to low power consumption. We compare ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ANCS
• Authors: Fang Yu, T. V. Lakshman, Martin Austin Motoyama, Randy H. Katz
• Keywords: ANCS 2005, Tcam Lookup, TCAM Memory, TCAM Memory Usage