| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/R31218/01 |
| Title: |
An Efficient and Flexible Architecture for Active Network Elements |
| Principal Investigator: |
Parish, Professor D |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Electronic, Electrical & Systems Enginee |
| Organisation: |
Loughborough University |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
29 October 2001 |
Ends: |
28 October 2003 |
Value (£): |
180,395
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Networks & Distributed Systems |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Communications |
Electronics |
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| Panel History: |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Programmable network elements are required to execute user initiated operations in a safe manner such that one process cannot interfere with any other. Software approaches to this issue are difficult to guarantee in all situations, and hardware approaches have been complex and expensive until recently. The latest reprogrammable FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) devices potentially offer a solution to this problem. The research project will investigate flexible architectures using these devices for the execution of user operations in a totally safe environment. Violations will be automatically detected independently of any other processing, and the offending operation terminated. The flexibility of the architecture will be demonstrated by the design and evaluation of both an Active Router and an Active End Station. This latter system will allow the architecture to be used in networks where the programmability is in the user terminal. Normally, such terminals would be at least mid-range devices such as PCs, but the addition of the FPGA based architecture will allow low cost terminals such as set top boxes to become Programmable-aware. The Industrial Partners are particularly interested in the outcomes of the work as these will include details of the interfaces and characteristics needed by future generations of FPGA devices and will hence influence design decisions.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.lboro.ac.uk |