Intel IXP1200 1.3.2 Frame and PDU Length vs. IP Packet Length

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

Application Note 9

Modified on: 3/20/02,

1.3.2 Frame and PDU Length vs. IP Packet Length

Figure 2 shows the relationship between IP Packet Length (X axis), Ethernet Frame Length, and

AAL5 PDU length (Y axis). Packet lengths 20 - 128 bytes are shown to illustrate 1-, 2-, and 3-cell

PDUs. The same pattern continues through the maximum Ethernet MTU size - the 1500 byte

packet, which requires 32 cells. There are a few important items to notice on this graph:

•1.The smallest possible Ethernet frame is 64-bytes, which includes the IP packet in addition to

a 14-byte Ethernet header and 4-byte FCS. Adding an 8-byte preamble and 12-byte interframe

gap (960ns) to this frame increases it’s wire-occupancy time to 84 bytes. After IP packet length

exceeds 46 bytes, Ethernet frame length is a linear function of IP packet length.

•AAL5 PDU length is a step-wise function of IP packet length, due to rounding up to ATM cell

boundaries. At 53 bytes per cell, the 4-byte ATM header and 1 byte HEC are included here, b ut

the physical layer SONET overhead is not shown.

•The smallest possible IP packet, 20 bytes, corresponds to an IP header that does not contain an

IP payload. This packet fits into a single cell PDU, as do packets up to size 32 bytes (20 byte

IP header plus 12 payload bytes).

•Minimized TCP/IP packets are 40 bytes - 20 byte IP header, 20 byte TCP header, and 0 TCP

payload bytes. These "40 byte packets" require 2 cell PDUs - they do not fit into single cell

Figure 1. IP over ATM Encapsulation Format

A8921-01

(LLC/SNAP)

Encapsulation LLC

3 bytes OUT

3 bytes PID

2 bytes IP Packet

AAL5

CS Padding

0-47 bytes UU

1 byte Length

2 bytes CRC

4 bytes

CPI

1 byte

CS-SDU Info Field

Ethernet

Data

Ethernet

to ATM

ATM to

Ethernet

IP

Data

Enet Header IP Packet

IP Header Payload

SAR

Sub-layer

Payload

48 bytes Payload

48 bytes

ATM Cell

Payload

48 bytes

GFC

4 bits VPI

8 bits VCI

16 bits PTI

3 bits CLP

1 bit HEC

8 bits ATM Header

(5 bytes)

Cells from other VCs

can be interleaved with

cells from this VC

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)