A General Development Methodology for Network Protocol Based on Network Processor

Abstract

NPs would be adopted in more and more communication devices, especially edge devices for their flexibility of protocol function upgrading. But NP's complex design, architectural heterogeneity, and demanding performance constraints make development of network protocol much difficult than expected. According to our experience from project of high performance router based on network processor, a general protocol development methodology is proposed, which defines the work flow of protocol development, and emphasizes the design of integrated coordinated NPs software development toolkits. The toolkits would help to increase the efficiency of NP code, which makes full of NP's performance, at the same time, provide programmers with whole life cycle of NP software development.