LwIP based network solution for MicroBlaze

This article deals with interfacing of Xilinx MicroBlaze (UB) softcore microprocessor to full duplex, 1 Gb/s media converter from metallic to optical interface, which is employed in experimental FSO link as a transceiver. The MicroBlaze harvests statistical data from the link and allows administration of the link via interactive web user interface. The MicroBlaze is connected to the data bus of the media converter via custom simple Ethernet switch and custom network interface. The porting of lightweight IP stack and implementation of example HTTP server is mentioned. The whole design is implemented on Xilinx XUPV5-LX110T Evaluation Platform with Virtex-5 FPGA chip.