Intel IXP1200 , 1.3.3 Expected Ethernet Transmit Bandwidth

IXP1200 Network Processor Family ATM OC-3/12/Ethernet IP Router Example Design

10 Application Note

Modified on: 3/20/02,

PDUs because 8-bytes of LLC/SNAP plus 8 bytes of AAL5 trailer push them over the 48 byte

payload capacity of a single ATM cell.

•Fully populated 64-byte minimum-sized Ethernet frames carry 46-byte IP packets, and also fit

into 2 cell PDUs, as do IP packets up through 80 bytes.

1.3.3 Expected Ethernet Transmit Bandwidth

This example design has more Ethernet transmit wire capacity than most full-bandwidth ATM

input workloads is able to consume. All configurations of this example design include more

Ethernet bandwidth than ATM bandwidth. This assures that Ethernet reception is fast enough to

supply ATM transmit at full wire rate, and that Ethernet can transmit fast enough to consume ATM

receive at full wire rate.

When Ethernet receive bandwidth exceeds ATM transmit wire-rate, the design discards the excess

Ethernet input. In the reverse direction, ATM receive wire-rate is less than Ethernet transmit wire-

rate, and so Ethernet transmit will never be fully consumed.

Given that the design receives cells at OC-3 or OC-12 wire-rate, Figure3 shows the expected

Ethernet Transmit bandwidth. This pattern is a direct result of the minimum Ethernet frame size

and cell granularity of AAL5 shown in the previous figure. For example, a 32-byte IP packet would

completely fill one cell, and when forwarded to Ethernet, Ethernet it expands to consume the entire

84-bytes of wire-time associated with a 64-byte minimum size Ethernet frame. In this scenario

ATM is more Mbps efficient than Ethernet, 949 Mbps Ethernet output would be expected.

However, as only 800Mbps of Ethernet bandwidth is available, the one-cell PDU workload will

drive the Ethernet wires to their 800Mbps capacity and discard the last 149Mbps.

Figure 2. Frame and PDU Length vs. IP Packet Length

Contents

Main Application Note Contents Page Page Figures 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Purpose of ATM Example Design 1.2 Scope of Example Design 1.2.1 Supported / Not Implemented Functions 1.3 Background 1.3.1 Ethernet, IP and AAL5 Protocol Processing 1.3.2 Frame and PDU Length vs. IP Packet Length 1.3.3 Expected Ethernet Transmit Bandwidth 1.4 Execution Environment 1.4.1 Software Page 1.4.2 Hardware 2.0 System Overview 2.1 System Programming Model 2.2 StrongARM Core Software 2.3 Software Partitioning Modified on: 3/20/02, 2.3.1 Lookup Tables Not shown in the diagrams, the microengines make use of either three or four lookup tables: Route microengine and the Ethernet Receive microengine. verification. * Modified on: 3/20/02, 2.4.1.2 IP Lookup Table Modified on: 3/20/02, 2.4.2 Ethernet to ATM D at a Flo w 2.5 StrongARM Core Initialization 2.6 Microengine Initialization 3.0 Microengine Functional Blocks 3.1 ATM Receive Microengine 3.1.1 Structure Application Note 21 Modified on: 3/20/02, 3.1.2 High Level Algorithm Figure 12. ATM Receive High Level Algorithm if(ATM header hits in VC cach 3.2 ATM Transmit Microengine 3.2.1 High Level Algorithm 3.3 IP-Router Microengine 3.3.1 Structure 3.3.2 High Level Algorithm 3.4 Ethernet Receive Microengine 3.5 Ethernet Transmit Microengine 3.5.1 Ethernet Transmit Structure 3.5.2 High Level Algorithm 3.6 CRC-32 Calculations using IXP1240/1250 Hardware 3.6.1 CRC-32 Hardware Checking on Receive Page 3.6.2 CRC-32 Hardware Generation on Transmit 3.6.2.1 Transmit Alignment 3.7 CRC-32 Checker and Generator Microengines (Soft-CRC) 3.7.2 CRC -32 Checker and Generator High Level Algorithm 3.7.3 CRC-32 Computation 4.0 Software Subsystems & Data Structures 4.1 Virtual Circuit Lookup Table - atm_vc_table.uc 4.1.1 VC Table Function Page 4.1.3 VC_TABLE_LINEAR Structure . . . 4.1.4 VC Table Management API - atm_utils.c 4.1.5 VC Table Entry Modified on: 3/20/02, Figure 24. VC Lookup Table Entry (VC_TABLE_LINEAR) 4.2 Virtual Circuit Lookup Table Cache 4.2.1 VC Cache Function 4.2.1.1 OC-12 Configuration 4.2.1.2 OC-3 Configuration 4.2.2 VC Cache Structure 4.2.3 VC Cache API 4.3 IP Lookup Table 4.3.1 IP Table Function 4.3.2 IP Table Structure 4.3.3 IP Table Management API 4.3.3.1 route_table_init() 4.3.3.2 mtu_change() 4.3.3.3 atm_route_add() 4.3.3.4 enet_route_add() 4.3.3.5 rt_ent_info() 4.3.3.6 route_delete() 4.3.3.7 rt_help () 4.3.4 IP Route Table Entry 4.4 SRAM Buffer Descriptors and DRAM Data Buffers Figure 25. IP Route Table Entry - ATM Destination Figure 26. IP Route Table Entry - Ethernet Destination Modified on: 3/20/02, SRAM 4.4.1 SRAM Buffer Descriptor Format Figure 27. SRAM Descriptor to DRAM Buffer Mapping SRAM Figure 28. Buffer Descriptor Format for ATM Transmit Destination Port Modified on: 3/20/02, 4.4.2 DRAM Data Buffer Format Figure 29. Buffer Descriptor Format for Ethernet Transmit Destination Port Figure 30. DRAM Data Buffer Format - 12 Byte Offset (Received by ATM) Figure 31. DRAM Data Buffer Format - 6 Byte Offset (Received by ATM, Transmitted by Ethernet) Figure 32. DRAM Data Buffer Format - 6 Byte Offset (Received by Ethernet, Transmitted by ATM) 4.5 Sequence Numbers - sequence.uc 4.5.1 SEQUENCE_HANDLE Usage 4.5.2 Usage Model 4.5.2.1 Example 4.6 Message Queues - msgq.uc 4.6.1 MSGQ_HANDLE Parameters 4.6.2 msgq_init_queue() 4.6.3 msgq_init_regs() 4.6.4 msgq_send() Modified on: 3/20/02, 4.6.5 msgq_receive() Receives a message from the queue. 4.6.6 Example 4.7 Buffer Descriptor Queues - bdq.uc 4.7.1 BDQ Manag ement Macros 4.7.1.1 Features 4.7.1.2 Limitations 4.8 Counters Page 4.8.2.3 Global Counter Enable and Flags Global Counter Enable and Flags Counter Flags Modified on: 3/20/02, 4.8.3 counters.uc 4.8.3.1 counter_reset() Resets the specified counter to zero. 4.8.3.2 counter_inc() Increments the specified counter. 4.8.3.3 port_counter_inc() port_counter_inc() Algorithm Example Modified on: 3/20/02, 4.8.4 counters.c 4.8.4.1 counters_init() Initializes all counters. 4.8.4.2 counters_print() Prints the names and values of all counters. Example 4.9 Global $transfer Register Name Manager - xfer.uc 4.10 Mutex Vectors 4.10.1 mutex_vector_init() 4.10.2 mutex_vector_enter() 4.10.3 mutex_vector_exit() 4.11 Inter-Thread Signalling 5.0 Project Configuration / Modifying the Example Design 5.1 project_config.h 5.2 system_config.h 5.3 Switching Between Hardware Configurations 6.0 Testing Environments 7.0 Simulation Support (Scripts, etc.) 8.0 Limitations 9.0 Extending the Example Design Modified on: 3/20/02, 10.0 Document Conventions 11.0 Acronyms & Definitions Figure 37. Illustration of Array of 32-bit Words Figure 38. Illustration of Byte Sequence Figure 39. Definitions 12.0 Related Documents Modified on: 3/20/02, Figure 39. Definitions (Continued)