Reconfigurable nodes for future networks

Future network architectures aim at solving the shortcomings of the traditional, static Internet architecture. In order to provide optimal service they have to adapt their functionality to different networking situations. This can be achieved by dividing the networking functionality into modular blocks and combining them as required at runtime. While the feasibility and flexibility of novel network architectures have been successfully demonstrated on software-based prototypes, they are often unable to provide sufficient performance due to the lack of hardware acceleration. We present a networking node architecture for future Internet applications that provides a reconfigurable hardware/software platform in which the modules of the node's network stack can be flexibly distributed at runtime across hardware and software. By utilizing novel reconfiguration-aware communication mechanisms for functional blocks both within and across the hardware and software domains, our flexible node architecture enables dedicated hardware acceleration for adaptive networking.