The main objective of the EU project SCAMPI was to develop a high-performance monitoring adapter for link speed up to 10 Gbps. When dealing with multi-gigabit traffic rates, it is no more possible to monitor incoming data flows using conventional computers with network interfaces, mainly due to the limited throughput between the network interface and CPU. The functionality of the SCAMPI monitoring adapter was therefore divided between the software part (used mainly for adapter configuration and control) and dedicated hardware -- the COMBO6 card that was designed for processing performance critical parts of the system using the FPGA technology.
In the scope of the SCAMPI project, the primary task of our team was to design and implement the adapter firmware and low-level software for communication with the COMBO6 card. We also developed the COMBO-PTM card whose task is to generate precise time stamps that are especially important for network performance statistics such as one-way delay.
