Project Overview

Our work on NP system modeling is aimed at determining the throughput of a network processor given the following information:

• System topology.
• Workload characteristics.
• Technology parameters.

The system topology describes the parameters of a generalized network processor topology, which can be configured in terms of processing elements, shared interconnects, and memory interfaces. These parameters enable us to represent a wide range of possible NP architectures. The workload characteristics range from simple workload parameters to an ADAG representation of processing task obtained from automated profiling and mapping. The technology parameters determine the clock speeds, memory access delays etc.

The model considers the performance of processing resources given the assigned workload. The annotations of the ADAG give information on how many instructions are processed and how many memory accesses are performed by each processor. For shared resources (e.g., memory) queuing effects are considered that are caused by multiple parallel requests that can only be served in sequence.

The ability to quickly evaluate the performance of a particular configuration is important for design space exploration as well as randomized mapping.

Publications

• Tilman Wolf and Mark A. Franklin. Performance models for network processor design. IEEE Transaction on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 17(6):548–561, June 2006.
• Ning Weng and Tilman Wolf, “Profiling and mapping of parallel workloads on network processors,” in Proc. of The 20th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC), Santa Fe, NM, Mar. 2005.
• Ning Weng and Tilman Wolf, “Pipelining vs. multiprocessors - choosing the right network processor system topology,” in Proc. of Advanced Networking and Communications Hardware Workshop (ANCHOR 2004) in conjunction with The 31st Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA 2004), Munich, Germany, June 2004.
• Mark A. Franklin and Tilman Wolf, “Power considerations in network processor design,” in Proc. of Second Network Processor Workshop (NP-2) in conjunction with Ninth International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA-9), Anaheim, CA, Feb. 2003, pp. 10–22.
• Tilman Wolf and Mark A. Franklin, “Design tradeoffs for embedded network processors,” in Proc. of International Conference on Architecture of Computing Systems (ARCS) (Lecture Notes in Computer Science), Karlsruhe, Germany, Apr. 2002, vol. 2299, pp. 149–164, Springer Verlag.
• Mark A. Franklin and Tilman Wolf, “A network processor performance and design model with benchmark parameterization,” in Proc. of First Network Processor Workshop (NP-1) in conjunction with Eighth International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA-8), Cambridge, MA, Feb. 2002, pp. 63–74.
• Mark A. Franklin and Tilman Wolf, “Power considerations in network processor design,” in Network Processor Design: Issues and Practices, Volume 2, Mark A. Franklin, Patrick Crowley, Haldun Hadimioglu, and Peter Z. Onufryk, Eds., chapter 3, pp. 29–50. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Nov. 2003.
• Mark A. Franklin and Tilman Wolf, “A network processor performance and design model with benchmark parameterization,” in Network Processor Design: Issues and Practices, Volume 1, Patrick Crowley, Mark A. Franklin, Haldun Hadimioglu, and Peter Z. Onufryk, Eds., chapter 6, pp. 117–138. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Oct. 2002.

For a complete list of NSL publications, see the publications page.