Research On Mechanism Of Software/Hardware Coordination And Flow Classification In HINOC Network MAC Coprocessor

High performance Network Over Coax (HINOC) is a broadband access solutionthat based on the coaxial cable of CATV network to provide users high-performanceduplex transformation. HINOC technology makes fully use of the existing network ofthe CATV coaxial cable and works on the channel frequency band above860MHz,aiming at providing high-speed and high-quality access for multi-services, such as voice,IPTV, SDTV/HDTV and Internet service, only by adding the devices of HINOC Bridge(HB) and HINOC Modem (HM). Research on the HINOC technology is of greatimportance to solve the bandwidth bottleneck of broadband access network andaccelerate the process of achieving Triple-Network Convergence.The paper is based on the National High Technology Research and DevelopmentProgram of China(863Program)–“Research and Chip Design of a New GenerationBroadband Access Technology Over Coax”. Firstly, based on the research and analysisof HINOC network and HINOC MAC protocol, software and hardware divisionschemes were proposed, which to design the MAC coprocessor based on FPGA torealize tasks involved the mass data transmission as well as operations high real-timerequired and to develop software to realize quite complex tasks, such as network search,nodes admission, links maintenance and so on. Secondly, software/hardwarecoordination mechanism of MAC coprocessor was designed, aiming at realizing thespeedy data transmission in HINOC network. Thirdly, flow classification mechanism ofMAC coprocessor was investigated, to complete L2/L3/L4data-stream processing ofhigh-speed coaxial access network and ensure that data transition from Ethernet toHINOC network. Finally, based on the test platform, the board-level verification wascompleted. Results indicated that the performance of designed mechanism ofsoftware/hardware coordination and flow classification of MAC coprocessor was good,satisfied the requirements of HINOC network.