Remember the days when Microsoft's
DOS had 640kb of memory. You had to squeeze every last bit of memory
out of DOS and offload the network protocols to smart adapters. I
worked at Madge Networks and they did this very well. Initially Madge Networks used chipsets from Texas Instruments
but later used that experience and knowledge to develop their own
token-ring ASIC which implemented in networking kit most notably some
kickass switches.
Today we still have network controllers that offload the network protocol stack, namely the Intel Corporation
Ethernet ones. They do a damn good job and those NICs are the best in
the business. Largely because of performance and processor
optimization. The network processing is wirespeed and the processor
isn't stressed.
But largely the play is now not what you offload but what's in the Linux kernel. As an example Wireguard in the Linux kernel is up to 6 times faster than IPSEC. Moving IPSEC to an ASIC isn't going to change that.
Also somehow IPSEC is somehow more secure? Practically it hasn't prevented any compromise to my knowledge.
In
the field of SD-WAN it's about software. Generic software and not
hardware based ASICs. That myth is totally busted because if it were
true we would have AB-WAN. ASIC based wide area networking!
* Originally posted on LinkedIn by Ronald Bartels.
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