Optimizing routing tables on systems-on-chip with Content-Addressable Memories

Abstract

Routing tables are part of a critical subsystem of modern internet routers that controls the filtering and forwarding of packets. They are typically embedded in content-addressable memories which in this context behave as elaborated sum-of-products expression evaluators. In this work, we examine the applicability of exclusive-or sum-of-products expressions as an alternative routing table formulation and conclude that they provide significant and practical savings in CAM utilization.