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Xcell Journal: The authoritative journal for programmable ... - Xilinx

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Ethernet<br />

on Host<br />

Host Messages<br />

GigE Link<br />

transceivers in the Virtex-II Pro FPGA,<br />

allowing high-speed data streams (1-10<br />

Gbps) to directly reach the core of the<br />

FPGA <strong>for</strong> processing. Dense FPGA logic<br />

available in the Virtex-II Pro FPGA facilitates<br />

implementation of complex state<br />

machines of the JIT protocol. <strong>The</strong> availability<br />

of embedded IBM PowerPC<br />

405 processors in the Virtex-II Pro FPGA<br />

allows implementation of complex sched-<br />

Network<br />

FIFO<br />

add<br />

connection<br />

delete<br />

connection<br />

PCS/PMA<br />

MAC<br />

Host<br />

FIFO<br />

JIT<br />

Processing<br />

Idle<br />

new<br />

message<br />

Parse<br />

Msgs<br />

new<br />

connection<br />

FPGA Prototyping Board<br />

FPGA<br />

JIT<br />

Engine<br />

MAC<br />

MAC<br />

PCS/PMA<br />

PCS/PMA<br />

GigE Link<br />

GigE Link<br />

Transmitter Control<br />

Receiver Control<br />

Figure 2 – Architecture of OBS NIC<br />

Process<br />

SMM<br />

Generic<br />

Msgs<br />

existing<br />

connection<br />

Process Msgs<br />

Timing<br />

FIFO<br />

no new<br />

message<br />

Figure 3 – FSM system flow diagram<br />

search<br />

connection<br />

update<br />

connection<br />

To/From<br />

Controller<br />

Optical Frontend Card<br />

Unable<br />

Tx<br />

Unable<br />

Rx<br />

uling algorithms and timers associated with<br />

the JIT protocol.<br />

<strong>The</strong> OBS NIC contains a Virtex-II Pro<br />

XC2VP20 FPGA. Three Gigabit Ethernet<br />

channels are used in this implementation<br />

of the OBS NIC. <strong>The</strong> first channel on the<br />

OBS NIC connects to an off-the-shelf<br />

Gigabit Ethernet card plugged into the<br />

host. This channel carries data and host<br />

messages between the OBS NIC and the<br />

host. <strong>The</strong> second channel is <strong>for</strong><br />

signaling and connects to the<br />

OBS network controller; it<br />

carries the JIT OBS signaling<br />

messages. <strong>The</strong> third channel is<br />

used as the data channel and is<br />

connected to the optical frontend<br />

card.<br />

<strong>The</strong> optical front-end card<br />

consists of an optical tunable<br />

transmitter and receiver. <strong>The</strong><br />

OBS NIC generates the tuning<br />

commands <strong>for</strong> the laser and<br />

optical receivers on the optical<br />

front-end card. Figure 2 illustrates<br />

the architecture of the<br />

OBS NIC.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Virtex-II Pro FPGA on<br />

the OBS NIC uses a PCS/PMA<br />

core and a MAC layer to connect<br />

the external gigabit channels<br />

to the JIT engine.<br />

<strong>The</strong> JIT engine implements<br />

the JIT OBS protocol in the<br />

OBS NIC. Functionalities <strong>for</strong><br />

both the source and destination<br />

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS<br />

state machines of the JIT OBS client are<br />

implemented in the JIT engine. <strong>The</strong> JIT<br />

engine processes three kinds of messages –<br />

messages from the host, signaling messages<br />

from the network, and internally generated<br />

timing messages.<br />

<strong>The</strong> JIT engine uses two functional<br />

state machines (FSM): the scheduling<br />

FSM, using a round-robin scheme, picks<br />

up a message from one of the three message<br />

queues (<strong>for</strong> different types of messages)<br />

and dispatches them <strong>for</strong> further<br />

processing, while the processing FSM is<br />

responsible <strong>for</strong> taking a message and processing<br />

that message. Several processing<br />

sub-modules can be activated by processing<br />

FSM as needed, such as a hashing<br />

module or a state machine module.<br />

Figure 3 diagrams the processing of messages<br />

in the JIT engine.<br />

Conclusion<br />

We believe that communications will be<br />

bi-modal within the next 25 years. All<br />

land lines will be optically based, with<br />

optical access to the user or device that is<br />

a client of the network. All backbone connections<br />

will be across optical trunks.<br />

Networking will be predominantly implemented<br />

in the “optical layer,” with little or<br />

no additional layering above it. Optical<br />

networks will be mostly a transparent<br />

transport media <strong>for</strong> applications.<br />

To meet the increasing demands of<br />

bandwidth and cost reduction, several<br />

technologies in the optical communications<br />

paradigm have been under intensive<br />

research.<br />

Just-In-Time signaling applied to the<br />

optical burst switching paradigm has the<br />

promise of being able to provide either circuit-<br />

or packet-switched services. JIT OBS<br />

implements the best of optical circuit<br />

switching and optical packet switching but<br />

avoids their shortcomings. JIT signaling<br />

aims to better utilize the variable parameters<br />

that can exist within both an optical<br />

and a wireless network, such as frequency<br />

availability and data-rate differences.<br />

For more in<strong>for</strong>mation on the<br />

research conducted by MCNC-RDI in<br />

the field of optical networks, visit<br />

www.mcnc-rdi.org.<br />

Winter 2004 <strong>Xcell</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> 31<br />

Optical<br />

Splitter/Coupler<br />

To/From<br />

PSC

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