Length-Bounded Hybrid CPU/GPU Pattern Matching Algorithm for Deep Packet Inspection

Abstract

Since frequent communication between applications takes place in high speed networks, deep packet inspection (DPI) plays an important role in the network application awareness. The signature-based network intrusion detection system (NIDS) contains a DPI technique that examines the incoming packet payloads by employing a pattern matching algorithm that dominates the overall inspection performance. Existing studies focused on implementing efficient pattern matching algorithms by parallel programming on software platforms because of the advantages of lower cost and higher scalability. Either the central processing unit (CPU) or the graphic processing unit (GPU) were involved. Our studies focused on designing a pattern matching algorithm based on the cooperation between both CPU and GPU. In this paper, we present an enhanced design for our previous work, a length-bounded hybrid CPU/GPU pattern matching algorithm (LHPMA). In the preliminary experiment, the performance and comparison with the previous work are displayed, and the experimental results show that the LHPMA can achieve not only effective CPU/GPU cooperation but also higher throughput than the previous method.

Keywords

• network security
• pattern matching algorithm
• deep packet inspection
• intrusion detection system
• general-purpose graphics processing unit
• compute unified device architecture