Research Of An Asymmetrical Communication Mechanism Over Ethernet

conventional close environment of network can not meet the need of the innovation of network technology, and the innovation of network technology is encountering great challenge. While FPGA has the ability of reconfiguration, and compromises on both performance and flexibility, the method of development design based on FPGA attracts extensive attention. On the other hand, with popularity and development of IoT (Internet of Things), FPGA has been widely used in small and networked devices with poor intelligence. The research of communication mechanism between computer and poor intelligent device based on FPGA attracts increasing attention.This paper proposes ACME (Asymmetrical Communication Mechanism over Ethernet) for network communication between computer and poor intelligent device based on FPGA. By use of ACME, we can flexibly deploy poor intelligent devices based on FPGA in a network, such as switches, routers and equipments of IoT based on FPGA. The computer can manage and control the devices remotely through internet, and communication is no longer confined to physical links. The main work and contribution of this paper includes:(1) We introduce conventional communication mechanisms between peer entities and between asymmetrical entities, most used Ethernet in LAN. We introduce ways of connecting poor intelligent devices to Internet, analyze and summarize the advantages and disadvantages of these ways. Then we propose ACME, introduce ACME design idea, basic framework and working process in detail, and study relevant technology of ACME, such as connection establishment and release, message confirmation, timeout and retransmission, delay judgment, flow control, and so on.(2) We define command set and command encapsulation of ACME, design generalized communication module on FPGA and ACME API. By well-defined software and hardware interfaces, we implement both FPGA-based device and OS independent ACME.(3) We implement an ACME prototype on NetMagic-Netmagic access and control system, analyze ACME resource occupation on NetMagic, network delay with message of different size under the same condition, effective utilization of bandwidth. At last, we give two applications of ACME on NetMagic: generalized NetMagic debugger and configuration software of RLI on NetMagic.According to the conclusion of this paper, the asymmetrical communication mechanism over Ethernet we proposed can have important value in theory and practice.