Platform for Rapid Development of Network Devices

This thesis deals with the design and implementation of an FPGA-based platform for rapid development of network applications for the COMBO cards family. The proposed platform includes a generic data transfer protocol - FrameLink, a set of tools for FrameLink manipulation, network interface blocks for 1 Gigabit Ethernet, high-speed connection to the software layer via PCI, PCI-X or PCI Express bus and a set of IP cores for network traffic analysis and processing. The benefits of the proposed platform are demonstrated on design and implementation of a network interface card, hardware firewall and exporter of unified packet headers