Software router breaking speed record

South Korean researchers have built a network router consisting of an end-to-end computer component that can transmit data at record speeds. The router, created by the Korean Academy of Advanced Science and technology, is transmitting data at a speed of 40,000 megabits per second (gigabits), many times faster than the previous record for similar devices. The technology that researchers use may lead to breakthroughs in many ways, including the use of inexpensive chips in high-performance routers, such as Intel and Nvidia, to replace custom hardware.

The software developed by researchers could also serve as a test platform for new network protocols that could eventually replace the decades-old protocols that currently run on the Internet.

Most routers use custom hardware to transfer data between computer networks. Software routers use ordinary hardware to accomplish the same task, imitating the behavior of hardware routers in software. Commercial software routers, such as Vyatta, typically have a data transfer speed of 3,000 megabits per second. This is not fast enough to match a typical network card with a maximum speed of 10,000 megabits per second.

"We started with a conservative goal: the first to achieve 10,000 megabits per second of the computer router, but we reached 40," said Sue Moon, a laboratory leader in the study. Her students Han Xiangjin (Sangjin Han) and Zhang Kion (Keon Jang) developed a software called Packetshader that made it possible. Packetshader uses the computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) to assist in processing packets sent over the network.

Modern routers are already not simple switches, and they typically manipulate data in different ways when packets are passed. The GPU is the ideal tool to do this because they can process data in parallel, which means that they can process multiple packets at a time. According to Wensue, GPU speed is especially fast in processing such as authentication or encrypting packets into data streams. When the GPU is working on these tasks, it gives the central processing unit (CPU) breathing space to handle other tasks in a natural order, so that processing several packets in turn can uncover an attempt to break into the network.

Mark Handley (Mark Handley), a professor of network systems at University College London (University College London), points out that for basic packet forwarding, the computer's CPU is adequate and there is no advantage in bundling the GPU in. However, he agrees that the GPU is ideal for encrypting or authenticating packets.

The Intel Berkeley Lab engineer Guianruca Iannacon (Gianluca Iannaccone) is familiar with PACKetshader, he said, would reduce the number of physical machines that make up the 1-bit software router per second to One-third of what he had previously studied.

"1" is the starting point for enterprise routers, and routers are the core of the internet, "Iannacon said. His research on the name Routebricks system shows that future routers are not specialized hardware now, but rather the software that is running on a clustered server. By tying enough software routers together to run at 40,000 megabits per second, you can get an essentially too-bit router. With such a system, the router will run entirely on the software someday.

"We can expect killer apps on top of this," said Kyoungsoo Park, a professor at the South Korean Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (Park), who was involved in the project. "On top of pc-based software routers, you can build an interesting packet or network management system that is not possible to implement on a hardware router." Eventually, you can experiment with new protocols that have not been tried on the internet today. The