As Internet connectivity becomes ubiquitous, so does the need for computer network safety and security. Key requirements are to keep local data secure from unwanted access (security) , and to prevent malicious attacks from external agents (safety), such as viruses and denial of service attacks. Secondary requirements may be to reduce undesirable network activity by local users, such as streaming of Internet radio stations, or hosting of unauthorised download sites.

The aim of this research is to determine the performance improvements that are possible in computer network appliances through the use of the new technology of reconfigurable System-on-Chip. We are particularly interested in low-cost acceleration of Firewall, VPN and Routing functions to cope with Gbit/s network speeds.

The research will devise new computer architectures for accelerating network appliance functions, prototype these architectures and functions on our Egret RSoC development platform, and analyse the resulting performance using standardised benchmarks such as Netbench.