Multi-core supported deep packet inspection

Network security applications such as intrusion detection systems (IDSs), firewalls, anti-virus/spyware systems, anti-spam systems, and security visualisation applications are all computing-intensive applications. These applications all heavily rely on deep packet inspection, which is to examine the content of each network packet's payload. Today these security applications cannot cope with the speed of broadband Internet that has already been deployed, that is, the processor power is much slower than the bandwidth power. Recently the development of multi-core processors brings more processing power. Multi-core processors represent a major evolution in computing hardware technology. While two years ago most network processors and personal computer microprocessors had single core configuration, the majority of the current microprocessors contain dual or quad cores and the number of cores on die is expected to grow exponentially over time. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the research on using multi-core technologies to parallelize deep packet inspection algorithms, and how such an approach will improve the performance of deep packet inspection applications. This will eventually provide a security system the capability of real-time packet inspection thus significantly improve the overall status of security on current Internet infrastructure.