WinPath3 SuperLite
Overview
- Next generation of access processors providing up to 2x the performance and more integration than the previous WinPath2 family
- Numerous WAN and LAN interfaces are supported in the family including 6 Gigabit Ethernet, 24 Fast Ethernet, 16 TDM and dual SPI-3/POS level 2/Utopia Level 2
- Wide range of bus interfaces available including PCIe plus highly flexible integrated memory controllers supporting DDR2/DDR3 SDRAM with ECC
- Royalty free "production hardened" data path software supporting over 60 protocols is included, plus C language API for rapid integration into high performance telecom systems
- RAM based Data Path code store to facilitate evolving standards in both wireline (Carrier Ethernet, Enterprise Access, Wireless Backhaul, GPON, DSLAM) and wireless (LTE, WiMAX, Fixed Wireless Access) designs
- Growing list of available data path software supporting interworking, QoS, and Layer 2 protocols such as MPLS, EFM G.Bond, PWE3-SATOP, Link Aggregation, GRE, WRED, WFQ, VLAN-aware bridging and many others
- 100% Software compatible with WinPath3 – application software can be easily ported between WinPath3 and WinPath3-SuperLite
- Custom programming available via rich suite of development tools plus extensive library of source code and example programs
WinPath3-SuperLite Access Processor - For High Volume Next Generation Networks
Microsemi's WinPath3-SuperLite (WP3-SL) provides a powerful, yet lower cost WinPath3 solution for access processing in the wireline and wireless access infrastructure equipment market. This new family of devices leverages Microsemi's broad portfolio of hardened market-ready protocols and industry preferred I/O interfaces and provides this solution in devices priced less than previous WinPath devices. It has the same processing elements as the WinPath3, but a reduced number (six) running up to 400 MHz. These processing elements support the latest packet based protocols such as Ethernet, PWE3 (for Ethernet TDM, HDLC, ATM), and Packet Network Synchronization (IEEE1588v2, Synchronous Ethernet, adaptive and differential clock recovery). It also supports ML- PPP, IMA, CES, OAM (for Ethernet and ATM), QoS (policing, shaping, per-flow queuing, WRED), plus many other protocols. The WP3-SL incorporates the new WP3 hardware accelerators such as a flexible high performance classifier, a hierarchical shaper, an integrated security engine and more. The WP3-SL family broadens the Microsemi solution to include a high performance yet lower cost option providing WinPath users a program of minimum design risk and short time to market.
Control Plane Processing
An integrated, high performance general-purpose dual-VPE MIPS 34K processor provides on-board control path software processing. This block is a licensed core, so standard 3rd party tools such as compilers, assemblers, and EJTAG devices are fully compatible. The clock for the MIPS core is decoupled from the data path processors to better tune the system-wide control processing.
Data Path Processing (WinComm3)
A sophisticated multi-core communication engine with a large internal program RAM provides superior overall processing power plus scalability and flexibility. Being RAM based, WinComm3 can be software upgraded as protocols evolve and standards change. Original WinPath protocols are supported, plus new protocols that take advantage of the new hardware accelerators. The number of processing cores (WinGines) is limited to six. Unlike traditional network processors or other micro-coded solutions, where protocol software is located in ROM or partitioned into small, segmented micro-blocks, the WP3-SL data path software (DPS) runs from a large shared memory space, increasing flexibility and performance. This means code doesn't require prior partitioning, coherency, or order management between engines, but is handled internally through special hardware at run time.
Industry Standard Interfaces
Numerous, highly flexible Ethernet options are available. Up to 24 10/100 Ethernet ports (using SMII or SS-SMII interfaces) or 6 Gigabit ports (using RGMII and SGMII interfaces) can be utilized at the same time. Additionally, 16 TDM ports support T1/ E1 or T3/E3 connectivity. Up to two UTOPIA/POS L2/ L3 ports are also available. The POS ports support 2 x SPI-3 (8-bit) as well. A single lane PCIe bus is available. Microsemi offers complete software packages enabling any-port-to-any-port routing, bridging, switching and interworking with these various interfaces.
High Performance/Cost Effective Memory Support
WP3-SL provides bus interfaces and memory controllers to support DDR2/DDR3 SDRAM. A large, 0.75 MBytes internal memory is used to store parameters that are frequently used. These memory controllers provide transaction optimization, auto alignment support, out of order transaction support, efficient bus utilization, and guaranteed low latency cycles which enables application level quality-of- service. On chip Error Checking and Correction (ECC) algorithms support internal as well as external memories.
New Hardware Accelerators
Several hardware accelerators supplement the WinComm3 processing resources.
The Parser and Classifier Engine is able to extract fields from all the incoming packets (even in case of over- subscription), build search keys and classify the data. This not only offloads this task from WinComm3, but also allows intelligent discard decisions in case of over-subscription, bridging and routing, forwarding, ACLS, flow prioritization, and encryption flow/profile identification.
The Hardware Shaper implements 3-level shaping over up to 4K queues. As an example, it is possible to classify per user, per user service, and per service level of priority. Each level can be programmed in multiple modes, including strict priority, weighted fair queuing or minimum and maximum rates for CIR and EIR shaping.
A Congestion Accelerator implements WRED and tail- drop policies on up to 4K queues.
The Policing Accelerator supports single and dual leaky bucket policing.
The Security accelerator supports up to 1 Gbps data encryption and authentication with a variety of cryptographic engines such as AES, 3xDES, Kasumi, Snow-3G and H-MAC (SHA-1 and MD5), together with PKE. The WP3-SL Security Engine (WSE) eliminates the need for inefficient external security devices in the wireless and wireline access systems. Packet forwarding, protocol processing, and security tasks can be executed on each data quantum on the fly (even simultaneously). While a specific data unit traverses from on-chip network interfaces to external memory storage, the innovative WinPath3- SL thread processing architecture allows multiple hardware elements to process the same data unit. In this way, security tasks are performed as an integrated component of the protocol data processing and data forwarding. With this on-chip security processing, the WP3-SL can provide higher levels of overall system bandwidth while maintaining lower system cost and design complexity.
The Packet Synchronization accelerator includes all hardware resources necessary to support IEEE 1588v2, Synchronous Ethernet and adaptive and differentialclock recovery for T1/E1/T3/E3.
Software Model
The software model consists of the Data Path Software – DPS, that runs on WinComm3, the packet processing engine and the Control Path Software – CPS that runs on the MIPS cores or and external processor connected through PCIe. Between these there is an API, the WinPath Device Driver Interface that allows control of the DPS using a simple set of high level commands. This way the application developer does not have to understand all the details of the Hardware and DPS implementation and can take advantage of the WinPath3-SL complex protocol processing resources just by enabling them through the API.
Microsemi offers royalty free, production quality DPS and WDDI. New releases, typically twice per year, add new protocols that allow the software upgrade of WinPath3-SL based systems. For customers that want to include their "secret sauce" in the DPS, a source code and development tool license is available, together with qualified third parties.
The current software offering includes the protocol listed in the figure below. These protocols run on WinPath-SL devices, as well as WinPath2 and WinPath3 processors, plus low-end derivatives, and use a common API. This decouples the software and hardware development, with an ever increasing selection of protocols running on different hardware platforms, providing various performance and interface options.
WinPath3 compared to WinPath3-SuperLite
WinPath Migration
Significant performance gains can be realized by migratng software from previous WinPath devices (WP2) to WP3-SL. These improvements require minimal changes in the API and re-compilation. However, to take advantage of WP3-SL specific hardware such as accelerators or encryption engines, new API function calls need to be activated.
Reference Boards
The WP3-SL has its own reference boards for early software development while a customer's own board is being developed. These reference boards are available in a stand-alone format as well standard AMC form factors, so they can be used with any AMC chassis. These boards are available with various I/O options to optimize these systems for a particular application. For more information, contact your respective Microsemi sales person.