TABLE OF CONTENTS And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran
Software is critical to the successful use of network processors. Performance with programmability, faster time to market, and longer time in market only in the realm of software can these competitive advantages be realized for network processors.
This chapter provides a high-level overview of the extremely comprehensive and powerful software infrastructure available for Intel IXP2XXX Network Processors. It briefly describes the software tools and introduces the application-programming model the Intel Internet Exchange Architecture (Intel IXA) Portability Framework. Specifically, it addresses the following questions:
What is the high-level software architecture of a device that uses network processors? What are the types of functions in the device that typically require a network processor?
What are the tools available for developing applications with IXP2XXX network processors?
What are goals and benefits of the application-programming model the Intel IXA Portability Framework?
What are the software components of the Intel IXA Portability Framework?
Networking device software can be grouped into three logical planes:
Software on the data plane processes the majority of the packets in the system. In the context of a traditional router, the data plane simply checks the integrity of the packet header and forwards it from an incoming interface to an outgoing interface. For this reason, the data plane is also called the forwarding plane.
