Adax Partners with Agata to Offer DPI Probe

Adax Packet Processing

 board

Adax announced "..a new partnership with communications and networking specialist Agata Solutions. Agata have integrated their high-performance Packet Processing Software with the Adax Pkt2-PCIe, an intelligent Cavium-based Packet Processing Controller to produce the Agata DPI Probe product. 

The Agata DPI probe and Packet Processing software is available now integrated with the Adax Pkt2-PCIe boards and can be used as building blocks for a wide range of applications for security detection and protection for example to defend against Denial of Service attacks, traffic redirection according to the demands of specific applications, and traffic modification for example to enable ad insertion. 

See "Agata and Adax Partner in DPI Probe Solution for Network Intelligence" - here.

ADLINK Announces 40G Packet Processing ATCA Blade

  

ADLINK announced its ".. first network processing unit (NPU) product, the ADLINK aTCA-N700 AdvancedTCA® packet processing blade, featuring dual 32 core NPUs providing parallel processing and up to 320G switching capability. .. The ADLINK aTCA-N700 is compliant to the ATCA Base Specification and the ATCA Ethernet Specification"

Features:

• Two Cavium OCTEON II CN6880 processors, each with 32 cnMIPS64 V2 cores processors
• Eight memory sockets support VLP DDR3-1600 REG/ECC up to 128 GB
• Onboard Ethernet switch BCM 56842 provides connectivity to RTM, OCTEON II processor and backplane (Fabric) with L2 and L3 switch management software
• Dual GBASE Fabric Interface channels
• Powerful Local Management Processor - Freescale QorIQ P2041, (Quad Core) @ 1.2GHz
• Flexible RTM support on 12 x10G SFP+ ports (RTM-RN710) or 2x 40G QSFP+ and 4x 10G SFP+ (RTM2-RN720)

See "ADLINK Introduces 40G ATCA NPU Blade for High Throughput Packet Processing" - here.

DPI Announcements: Vineyard's DPI Engine Supports Cavium Processors and S/W

  

Vineyard Networks announced "..its product support for the new state-of-the art OCTEON® III MIPS64® family of 1 – 48 core multicore processors, as well as its product integration into the TurboDPI™ framework [here] .. Vineyard Networks’ next-generation Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) engine, Network Application Visibility Library (NAVL), easily integrates into third party network infrastructure solutions to provide industry leading L7 detection of thousands of today’s most popular applications. In addition, it has the ability to extract extensive sets of metadata and application attributes from network traffic in real time". 

See "Vineyard Networks delivers Next-Generation Deep Packet Inspection and Application Detection up to 100Gbps on OCTEON III Processors" - here. 

Source: Vineyard Networks

See competitive announcements from Sensory Networks and Qosmos

DPI Announcements: Sensory Networks DPI S/W for Cavium Octeon II

    

Sensory Networks announced "availability of its HyperScan™ engine with optimized support for the full range of OCTEON® II Multi-core processors from Cavium [here] .. The new release of HyperScan supports dual-core to 32-core OCTEON II processors, and when benchmarked with a database of complex regular expressions targeted at intrusion prevention from a tier-1 equipment vendor, delivered Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) throughput of 1.5Gbps/core. When benchmarked against a database of literal patterns, HyperScan achieved a throughput of 3Gbps/core. The performance scaled linearly with the number of cores in both cases"

 

Sab Gosal (pictured), CEO of Sensory Networks, said: "The HyperScan-OCTEON II combination delivers significantly higher packet scanning throughput compared to OCTEON, and rounds-out our support for the entire processor family. This not only meets our customers' requirements for scaling the deployment of our DPI technology, but further positions HyperScan for emerging applications associated with cloud services, social media networks and service provider infrastructures".

See "SENSORY NETWORKS RELEASES DPI SOFTWARE OPTIMIZED FOR CAVIUM OCTEON® II PROCESSORS® II PROCESSORS" - here

See also:

• Cavium Now Offers DPI s/w - here
• Qosmos' DPI Engine Ready for Next-Generation Firewalls - here

DPI Announcements: Emerson 40G ATCA Blade

  

Emerson Network Power announced the ".. availability of its first 40G AdvancedTCA payload blade, the ATCA-9405. The ATCA-9405 can provide telecom equipment manufacturers with up to four times performance increase over previous generation ATCA blades .. Featuring dual OCTEON^® II CN6880 processors from Cavium [here] each with 32 cnMIPS cores running at up to 1.5GHz, the Emerson Network Power ATCA-9405 enables the implementation of packet processing applications at line speeds of 40Gbps in conjunction with Emerson’s industry-leading range of 40G ATCA platforms".

See "Emerson Network Power Announces Availability of Powerful 64-core Cavium Dual OCTEON II 40G ATCA Packet Processor Blade" - here.

" the ATCA-9405 provides for direct Ethernet cable terminations of up to 82Gbps via a rear transition module (RTM) giving a total maximum throughput of 328Gbps. To help manage this, the blade’s dual-core Freescale QorIQ P2020 processor implements sophisticated Ethernet switch management as well as local management functions. Free of such system management overhead, the OCTEON II processors can be dedicated solely to packet processing. "

Competition:

• RadiSys Launches a New ATCA Blade - here.  
• Continuous Computing 200Gbps DPI Platform - here

 

DPI Announcements: NetLogic Multi-core Processor w/Layer 7 Processing

  

Embedding/integrating multi-core packet processors with DPI becomes more competitive as we now have 3 offering: Cavium (here) and Netronome (here) as well as NetLogic recently announced "..XLP316S multi-core, multi-threaded processor which integrates best-in-class NETL7™ Layer 7 knowledge-based processor technology.  This highly integrated processor that combines NetLogic Microsystems’ industry-leading XLP™ multi-core processing and NETL7 knowledge-based processing technologies is ideal for next-generation network security appliances, deep-packet inspection (DPI) gateways, intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and anti-malware gateways".  

See "NetLogic Microsystems Introduces Best-in-Class XLP™ Multi-Core Security Processor with Integrated NETL7™ Knowledge-based Processor" - here.

"The XLP316S .. is targeted to offer unparalleled performance of 20Gbps and 30 million packets-per-second (Mpps) .. The NETL7 knowledge-based processing technology features the Intelligent Finite Automaton (IFA) architecture which .. natively performs stateful cross-packet inspection in hardware. Furthermore, it integrates on-chip memory to provide ultra-low latency access to on-chip signature databases, allowing the processors to accelerate complex and iterative content inspection while eliminating the need to provision for the high-latency and costly off-chip memory that are required by competing solutions".

For comparison - Cavium claims for 40Gbps and Netronome for 100Gbps performance. Not sure if all claims are made on equal basis and assumptions ..

Chris O’Reilly (picture), VP of marketing at NetLogic Microsystems said “..As the industry’s only quad-issue, quad-threaded processor with integrated layer 7 knowledge-based processing technology, our XLP316S processor is uniquely suited to address the growing market for Layers 2 - 7 security processing in enterprise, small-and-midsize business (SMB) and carrier-class networks".

DPI Announcements - Cavium's 40 Gbps DPI Processor

  

Cavium announced "its next generation NITROX® DPI II family of L7 content processors, the industry's first stand-alone "bump-in–the-wire" single chip deep packet inspection processor family that can achieve up to 40 Gbps of application recognition and protocol analysis performance .. The rich feature set and high performance of this processor family is enabled by the on-chip revolutionary Hyper Finite Automata (HFA) engines and optimized TurboDPI software [here]".

 
See "Cavium Networks Introduces First 40 Gbps "Bump-in-the-Wire" Deep Packet Inspection / Application Recognition Processor Family" - here.

As for DPI, the new chip supports "Perl-Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) and POSIX Regex Syntax support including support for capture groups, back references and assertions, for applications such as Application Recognition, URL Filtering, Denial of Service, Antivirus and Intrusion Prevention".

Previously announced TurboDPI (that is integrated/optimized by the new chip) "detect[s] hundreds of protocols including Internet (HTTP, FTP etc), Email (IMAP, POP3, SMTP etc.), Web 2.0 (Facebook, Myspace, etc), Multimedia (Flash, Quicktime, Youtube, etc), Peer to Peer (Bittorrent, eDonkey, etc) and Voice and Messaging (Skype, GoogleTalk, Yahoo, etc)"  

   

Cavium Now Offers DPI s/w

 

Cavium is going up in the DPI food chain. The chip manufacturer that has offered so far packet processing chips ("Cavium Networks OCTEON II CN68XX" - here), is now announcing "TurboDPI™, the  industry’s first off-the-shelf multi-function security software solution optimized for OCTEON II processors. TurboDPI utilizes Cavium Networks patent pending new Uniscan™ technology that is incorporated in all multi-core OCTEON II processors to simultaneously block malicious or inappropriate URLs, identify hundreds of widely used protocols and applications, help block thousands of different intrusion attempts and locate over a hundred thousand varieties of virus and malware threats, all with just a single scan of the data stream, enabling the highest performance at up to 40Gbps"

See "Cavium Networks Introduces TurboDPI – A Complete Solution Integrating Protocol Analysis, Application Recognition, URL Filtering, IDS/IPS and Anti-Malware" - here.

"Cavium’s TurboDPI solution consists of carrier-grade, deep packet inspection software which can be utilized inline or out of band to detect hundreds of protocols including Internet (HTTP, FTP etc), Email (IMAP, POP3, SMTP etc.), Web 2.0 (Facebook, Myspace, etc), Multimedia (Flash, Quicktime, Youtube, etc), Peer to Peer (Bittorrent, eDonkey, etc) and Voice and Messaging (Skype, GoogleTalk, Yahoo, etc).. OEM customers can utilize their own in-house signatures and rules or combine with best of breed  anti-malware technology providers such as Kaspersky Lab to create a single solution for protocol analysis, application recognition, URL filtering, intrusion prevention and anti-malware".

Note that Qosmos, a provider of DPI s/w package, is presented at Cavium's partner page (here) and supports the same Cavium processors (see "Qosmos announces support for Cavium Networks OCTEON™ Multicore MIPS64® based processors"- here)

Rumors: Cavium Received Proposal from Cisco - What does it Mean for DPI vendors?

  
Reported by Franklin Price, at benzinga site (August 31):

"Rumors circulating that Cavium Networks has received an unsolicited proposal from Cisco to acquire the company for $37.00 a share. Neither company could be reached for comment" (here).

Cavium (CAVM) closed at $25.21 on Thursday.

Cavium is a leading supplier of network processors for DPI (and other IP devices) equipment vendors. In Cisco hands, I wonder if they will continue to sell to other vendors - which are all Cisco's competitors. This will leave the market to its prime competitor, NetLogic/RMI.

"Cisco and the company’s manufacturing partners buy approximately 1% of all semiconductors produced globally, according to [Gary Mobley, an analyst at Benchmark report]. As a result, Cisco's chip vendors-such as Cavium and NetLogic-could be impacted. Cisco represented 25% of Cavium’s first-half 2010 revenue, up from 20% of 1H FY09 revenue. Cisco represented 29% Netlogic’s 1H FY10 revenue" (EETimes "Cisco's miss sends jitters in supply chain" - here).

See "DPI Announcements - Cavium Networks OCTEON II CN68XX" - here.

DPIBench - A Benchmark for Measuring DPI Product Throughput

 

EEMBC, Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, announced "its intent to create a standardized, industry-endorsed method to evaluate the performance of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) solutions".

 

See "EEMBC® Undertakes Design of Industry-Standard Network Security Performance Benchmarks" - here.

"In addition to creating the benchmarks that capture the performance of a system providing DPI, EEMBC will standardize the setup and certification methodology, as well as the standardized run and reporting rules."

“Most DPI product vendors use proprietary methods for measuring and specifying their products’ performance, which makes it very challenging for their customers to do an accurate competitive analysis,” said EEMBC president Markus Levy. “In the customer’s interest, we are encouraging all relevant companies, including the system manufacturers, network processor vendors, and networking and security application developers, to join us in this effort to ensure a meaningful and fair representation.”


While this effort targets security applications of DPI, I believe it may be relevant for traffic management applications as well.

Related posts:

• DPI Announcements - NetLogic 40Gbps Layer 7 Processing Solution  - here
• DPI Announcements - Cavium Networks OCTEON II CN68XX  - here

 

 

 

 

 

 

DPI Announcements - NetLogic 40Gbps Layer 7 Processing Solution

 

Two months after its rival announcement (see "DPI Announcements - Cavium Networks OCTEON II CN68XX" - here) we get today NetLogic Microsystems 40G announcement - "Hardware and software development kit combines NetLogic Microsystems’ best-in-class XLP™ multi-core, multi-threaded processor, the NL11k knowledge-based processor and NETL7™ Layer 7 knowledge-based processor into a complete L2 - L7 system solution ".

See "NetLogic Microsystems Announces the Industry's First 40Gbps Wire-Speed and Fully Deterministic Layers 2 - 7 Intelligent Processing Solution" - here.

See more on the network processors for 40 Gbps DPI - here. Cavium and NetLogic (based on the acquired  RMI products) are used by vendors to implement DPI products (see "RMI and Allot Communications Expand Strategic Partnership to Broaden and Accelerate the Development of DPI-based Solutions" - here). So I am not sure what is designated as "industry first" but it is certainly for the vendors to see some competition for the most critical solution’s component.

NetLogic Microsystems’ 40Gbps NLX321103A solution enables next-generation switches, routers, access aggregation, metro Ethernet, service gateways, security appliances and storage appliances to perform uncompromised L2 - L7 packet processing on every packet of traffic with minimal network latency under a wide variety of Internet traffic scenarios, which in turn ensures predictable network behaviors and eliminates network bottlenecks

“NetLogic Microsystems is uniquely positioned to deliver this integrated L2 - L7 system solution that leverages the company’s multiple generations of its multi-core processors, knowledge-based processors and content processors,” said Bob Wheeler, senior analyst at The Linley Group. “The explosive growth of video and mobile-data traffic has made the determinism and line-rate throughput of functions such as IPv6 classification and deep-packet inspection extremely critical to the overall performance for next-generation networks.”

Related post - 'Ticonderoga Securities: "DPI will become critical in LTE networks" - here.

Ticonderoga Securities: "DPI will become critical in LTE networks"

 

In an article in Barron's Apurva Patel, Analyst at Ticonderoga Securities, selects his winners for "Next-Gen Video", following presentations in two industry conferences -the 10th annual Backhaul Strategies Conference  (here) and the 3rd annual Cable Next-Gen Video Strategies Conference - both organized by Light Reading.


See the report "Winners in Next-Gen Video" - here.

One of the conclusions is "We believe wireless- and video-service providers are facing some of the same challenges, mainly balancing revenue and higher costs per bit. In regards to telecom-service providers, we believe they are demanding higher bandwidth capacity with intelligent processing capabilities (including better security options), which we view as positive for semiconductor companies that enable equipment suppliers to meet their end-customer demands. For example, we believe security features, like Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), will become critical in long-term evolution networks.

I guess that DPI here relates more to the traffic management aspects (which is the main issue presented) rather than security (a valid aspect by itself). We saw a similar conclusion yesterday from Yankee Group (see "Yankee Group: 4G Video is a Killer App, but might be a Network Killer" - here).

The investment recommendation relate to semiconductor suppliers - including Cavium Networks  and NetLogic Microsystems (see "DPI Announcements - Cavium Networks OCTEON II CN68XX" - here) - anything beyond it - products, systems and solution vendors is not discussed.

DPI Announcements - Cavium Networks OCTEON II CN68XX

 
This time we go to the bottom of the food chain - the processing element. In recent years the computing power needed for packet processing grows faster than CPU evolution. As a result, vendors of smart traffic management devices need to explore new ways to increase performance and keep up with the demand for bandwidth over public networks.

In earlier days DPI devices were using "general purpose" CPUs (mainly Intel x86) but had to abandon the [easy to develop] technology to handle multiple Gbps links. Additional requirements including space and power consumption (see "Making Sense of Dense" by Tom Donnelly, EVP Marketing & Sales, Sandvine - here) led the leading vendors to use specialized network (or packet) processors or even build their own ASICS (application-specific integrated circuit).

See also - "Network Processor Overview" - here.

DPI vendors claim today for total performance of 40,80 or even more Gbps of traffic over multiple 10GE links.

The next step in the carrier deployment will include and upgrade to 40GE links - or even 100GE (see "40G vs. 100G optical technology battle will be decided by cost; 10G remains tough competitor" by Infonetics Research - here)

Cavium, one of the leading packet processor vendors, may have the answer. Cavium announced yesterday a new Multi-Core Processor  - the OCTEON II CN68XX described as family that "integrate 8 to 32 enhanced MIPS64 cores with up to 48GHz of 64 bit compute power in a single chip combined with over 85 L3-L7 application and security acceleration engines, virtualization features, 100Gbps of connectivity, and a revolutionary new Real Time Power Optimizer™ that dynamically adjusts power depending upon the application-level processing requirement.".

Press release - here

Cavium main competitor is RMI - now part of Netlogic.