The 6WINDGate software is a drop-in replacement for standard OperatingSystem networking stacks. It typically provides up to 10x the packet processing performance of a standard networking stack, significantly improving the price-performance and power-performance ratios of networking equipment.
6WINDGate is fully compatible with standard Operating System APIs (e.g. Linux Netfilter, Netlink etc). This ensures that clients can migrate either from a single-core to a multicore platform, or from one multicore platform to another, without needing to rewrite or reverify their existing software. Clients minimize the development time for their base multicore software platform, focusing on their unique product differentiation and accelerating their overall time-to-market.
Click here for the comprehensive set of protocols (RFCs) supported within 6WINDGate.
6WIND works closely with multicore processor suppliers to ensure that 6WINDGate is fully optimized for the Multicore Executives (MCEEs) that they provide, while also leveraging the capabilities of the on-chip accelerators included in processor platforms, such as security offload engines and crypto accelerators.
6WINDGate achieves industry-leading performance on packet processing workloads by addressing two key shortomings of standard OS networking stacks.
Maximizing network stack performance
A standard networking stack uses services provided by the OS and is subject to significant overheads associated with functions such as preemptions, threads, timers and locking. These processing overheads are imposed on each packet passing through the system, resulting in a major performance penalty for overall throughput. As a result, a processor with, for example, eight cores may not process packets significantly faster than one with two cores. All in all, a standard OS stack does a poor job of exploiting the potential packet processing performance of a multicore processor.
6WINDGate solves these problems. The 6WINDGate networking stack is split into two layers and the lower layer, typically called the fast path, processes the majority of incoming packets outside the OS environment without incurring any of the OS overheads that degrade overall performance. Only those rare packets that require complex processing are forwarded to the OS networking stack, which performs the necessary management, signaling and control functions.
Because splitting the networking stack in this way maintains standard OS application interfaces, there is no impact on the functionality of application software. Existing applications do not need to be rewritten or recertified, but they run significantly faster because the underlying packet processing is accelerated through the fast path environment.
Maximizing scalability across multiple cores
Although some improvements can be made to a standard OS stack to support multicore architectures, performance fails to scale linearly over multiple cores. In a system using 6WINDGate, however, packets that require complex processing in the OS networking stack are so rare that only a limited number of cores needs to be configured to run the OS. The remaining cores can be dedicated to run the fast path packet processing, maximizing the overall throughput of the system.
This approach truly exploits the potential of a multicore processor. The lack of scalability in a standard OS stack no longer impacts system performance, as the majority of packets are no longer subjected to unnecessary latencies. The fast path cores are dedicated to performing the functions that actually determine the net performance of the product. Designers can select a processor with the number of cores most appropriate to their product requirements, with the confidence that system performance will indeed scale linearly with the number of cores used.
Click here to request a detailed overview of the 6WINDGate architecture.
The protocols you need for your product
The 6WINDGate software suite contains a comprehensive set of networking protocols applicable to a variety of applications. 6WIND’s experts consult with you to determine the optimum set of protocols for your specific requirements and then deliver an integrated suite guaranteed to be fully interoperable and to be optimized for your multicore processor.
Click here to review the modules available within the 6WINDGate software suite and here for the full list of supported RFCs.
Supporting your choice of multicore processor
6WINDGate is available with optimized support for a range of multicore processors from Cavium, Freescale, Intel, NetLogic and Tilera. Click here to review the list of hardware platforms supported by 6WINDGate.
Please contact our experts to discuss 6WINDGate support for your selected multicore platform.