N-ANL11 versus N-ANL3A
This table gives an overview of the differences between feature set N-ANL11 for 4GA SmartNICs in the Link™ Capture Software 11.6 release and feature set N-ANL3A for 3GA SmartNICs in the Green Bay 2 release.
| Feature | N-ANL3A | N-ANL11 | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Ports | |||
| 100 Gbit/s CFP4 LR4 on NT100E3-1-PTP | Yes | Yes | - |
| 100 Gbit/s CFP4 SR4 on NT100E3-1-PTP | No | Yes | - |
| Packet Descriptors | |||
| Standard packet descriptor | Yes | Yes | A number of fields are not used in feature set N-ANL11 (see DN-1128). |
| PCAP packet descriptor | Yes | Yes | PCAP descriptors are not 8-byte aligned in feature set N-ANL11, and the FCS is removed from the frames, which is reflected in the stored length. This means that the PCAP descriptors are now fully PCAP-compliant. |
| Extended packet descriptor 7 | Yes | No | - |
| Extended packet descriptor 8 | Yes | No | - |
| Extended packet descriptor 9 | Yes | Yes | The TX fields and a number of other fields are not supported in feature set N-ANL11 (see Extended Descriptor 9), and the descriptor now has a fixed length (see DN-1128). |
| Dynamic packet descriptor 1 | No | Yes | - |
| Dynamic packet descriptor 2 | No | Yes | - |
| Dynamic packet descriptor 3 | No | Yes | - |
| Dynamic packet descriptor 4 | No | Yes | - |
| HAL macros | Yes | Yes | - |
| RX Time-Stamping | |||
| End-of-frame time stamps | Yes | Yes | - |
| Start-of-frame time stamps | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 start-of-frame time stamp does not apply to NT40E3-4-PTP. |
| Native time stamp format | Yes | No | - |
| Native UNIX time stamp format | Yes | Yes | - |
| Native UNIX ns time stamp format | No | Yes | - |
| Native NDIS time stamp format | Yes | No | - |
| PCAP-ns time stamp format | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 the time resolution is 1 ns, while in feature set N-ANL3A the time resolution was 4 ns. |
| PCAP-μs time stamp format | Yes | Yes | - |
| Time Synchronization | |||
| OS time synchronization | Yes | Yes | - |
| Synchronization of OS time to SmartNIC time | Yes | Yes | - |
| NT-TS time synchronization | Yes | Yes | Feature set N-ANL11 only supports the NT-TS signal on the internal time synchronization connectors. |
| PPS time synchronization | Yes | Yes | - |
| PPS output | Yes | Yes | - |
| PPS-triggered clock sampling | Yes | Yes | - |
| PTP time synchronization | Yes | Yes | There are a number of limitations in feature set N-ANL11 (see below). |
| IEEE 1588-2008 PTP slave | Yes | Yes | - |
| IEEE 1588-2008 PTP master | Yes | No | - |
| PTP Default profile | Yes | Yes | - |
| PTP Telecom profile | Yes | Yes | - |
| PTP Power profile | Yes | No | - |
| SyncE slave frequency synchronization | Yes | Yes | - |
| SyncE master frequency synchronization | Yes | No | - |
| Time of day and phase reference failover | Yes | Yes | - |
| Frequency reference failover | Yes | Yes | - |
| Multi-Port Packet Merge | |||
| Software merge across SmartNICs | Yes | Yes | - |
| Hardware merge on a single SmartNIC | Yes | Yes | - |
| QPI bypass in an NT200C01 solution | No | Yes | - |
| Frame Classification | |||
| ISL encapsulation, VLAN tags, MPLS encapsulation | Yes | Yes | There is a slight difference for ISL. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| VN-Tag classification | No | Yes | VN-Tag classification does not apply to NT40E3-4-PTP in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Layer 2: EtherII, Novell_RAW, SNAP, LLC, others | Yes | Yes | There are slight differences, and the Other class is new in feature set N-ANL11. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Layer 3: IPv4, IPv6, IPX, others | Yes | Yes | IPX is not supported in feature set N-ANL11, and there are slight differences for IPv4 and IPv6. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Layer 4: TCP, UDP, ICMP, GRE_v0, SCTP, others | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 GRE_v0 is included in the tunnel type classification instead of layer 4, and there is a slight difference for TCP. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Layer 4 port: GTPv0-U, GTPv1v2-C, GTPv1-U, others | Yes | No | - |
| Tunnel type: GTPv1v2-C, GTPv1-U_signaling, GTPv1-U_GPDU | Yes | No | - |
| Tunnel type: GTPv1-C, GTPv2-C, GTPv1-U, GRE_v0, GRE_v1, EtherIP, VXLAN | No | Yes | - |
| Tunnel type: GTPv0-U, IPinIP, others | Yes | Yes | There is a slight difference for GTPv0-U but IPinIP and TunnelType_Other are the same in feature set N-ANL3A and feature set N-ANL11. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Inner layer 2: VLAN tags, MPLS encapsulation | No | Yes | - |
| Inner layer 3: IPv4, IPv6, others | Yes | Yes | There are slight differences. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Inner layer 4: TCP, UDP, ICMP, GRE_v0, SCTP, others | Yes | Yes | There are slight differences, and GRE_v0 is not included in feature set N-ANL11. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Ethernet checksum verification | Yes | Yes | - |
| IP, UDP and TCP checksum verification | Yes | No | See also HAL Macros. |
| IP match classification | Yes | Yes | This functionality has been extended in feature set N-ANL11. The number of match entries has been increased, and address groups and wildcard matches have been included. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Filtering and Coloring | |||
| 64 general-purpose filters | Yes | Yes | The filter architecture is new in feature set N-ANL11. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Physical port number filter | Yes | Yes | - |
| Pattern compare filter | Yes | Yes | The ByteStr32 data type is not supported in feature set N-ANL11, and data values and data masks are restricted compared to feature set N-ANL3A (see NTPL and Pattern Compare). |
| Size compare filter | Yes | Yes | This functionality has been extended in feature set N-ANL11 to support comparison of subsets of frames. |
| Protocol filter | Yes | Yes | More protocols are supported in feature set N-ANL11. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Error conditions filter | Yes | Yes | Not all error conditions are supported in feature set N-ANL11. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| IP match filter | Yes | Yes | This functionality has been extended in feature set N-ANL11. The number of match entries has been increased, and address groups and wildcard matches have been included. However, the IP match function is not implemented in the same way in feature set N-ANL11 as in feature set N-ANL3A. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Flow match filter based on key test | No | Yes | - |
| Coloring | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 color information can be added in a key test filter. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Color mask | No | Yes | - |
| Deduplication and Correlation Key | |||
| Deduplication | Yes | No | See also HAL Macros. |
| Correlation key | Yes | Yes | The implementation differs. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. See also HAL Macros. |
| Slicing and Decapsulation | |||
| Hard-slicing | Yes | Yes | In Green Bay 2 frames are hard-sliced to 16383 bytes in the PHY/MAC and 10000 bytes during the frame processing, so the NT_NET_GET_PKT_WIRE_LENGTH macro returns a number between 10000 and 16383 for hard-sliced frames. In feature set N-ANL11 frames are hard-sliced to 10000 bytes in the PHY/MAC, so the NT_NET_GET_PKT_WIRE_LENGTH macro always returns 10000 for hard-sliced frames. |
| Fixed slicing | Yes | Yes | - |
| Dynamic slicing | Yes | Yes | An end-of-frame dynamic offset has been added in feature set N-ANL11 enabling bytes to be sliced off from the end of the frame by applying a negative offset. This can be used, for instance, for frame checksum removal. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| MPLS decapsulation | Yes | No | - |
| Hashing | |||
| Hash key types | Yes | Yes | - |
| Dynamic hash key selection | Yes | Yes | There are differences with respect to IPMatch. See DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| GTP tunneling support | Yes | Yes | - |
| IPinIP tunneling support | Yes | Yes | - |
| GRE tunneling support | Yes | Yes | - |
| NVGRE tunneling support | No | Yes | - |
| Tuple swap controlled by IP match filter | Yes | Yes | The implementation differs. feature set N-ANL11 uses a workaround. See DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Tuple swap controlled by receive port number | Yes | Yes | - |
| Hash key masks | Yes | Yes | There are slight differences. See DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Hashing with configurable field selection | No | Yes | - |
| Multi-CPU Distribution | |||
| Per-port CPU distribution | Yes | Yes | - |
| Hash-based CPU distribution | Yes | Yes | - |
| Filter-based CPU distribution | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 stream information can be added in a key test filter. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Combined hash- and filter-based CPU distribution | Yes | Yes | - |
| IP Fragment Handling | |||
| IP fragment handling | Yes | Yes | Inner fragments are not handled in the same way in feature set N-ANL11 as in feature set N-ANL3A (see IP Fragment Handling). |
| Local Retransmission | |||
| Local retransmission between ports on one SmartNIC | Yes | Yes | The implementation differs; and local retransmission of a frame on multiple ports is not supported in feature set N-ANL11. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Local retransmission with embedded time stamp | No | Yes | - |
| Line loopback | Yes | Yes | - |
| Host-Based Transmission | |||
| Host-based transmission from a host buffer on a specified port | Yes | Yes | The implementation differs. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Host-based transmission of packets from a single host buffer on different ports depending on the port specification in the packet descriptor of the individual packets | Yes | Yes | The implementation differs. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| TX on time stamp | Yes | Yes | The implementation differs. See DN-1128 and DN-0449 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| IP, UDP and TCP checksum generation | Yes | No | - |
| Injection of time stamp | Yes | No | - |
| Generation of new CRCs for transmitted frames | Yes | Yes | - |
| Transmission of frames with the CRC stored in the frame without generating a new one | Yes | No | - |
| Buffer System | |||
| Back-to-back storage of frames | No | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 frames are stored back-to-back in the host buffer with no padding in between per default, while in feature set N-ANL3A frames were always 8-byte aligned and zero-padded. |
| Maximum number of host buffers | 32 | 128 | 128 host buffers are only available with dynamic segment size. With static segment size the maximum number of host buffers is 64. |
| Maximum host buffer size | 128 GBytes | 1 TByte | - |
| Total host buffer memory | 128 GBytes | 1 TByte | - |
| Segment sizes supported (in MB) | default, 1, 2, 4 | default, dynamic, 1, 2, 4 | In feature set N-ANL11 dynamic
segment size is recommended for packet-based interface, while static segment size
(1, 2 or 4 MBytes) is recommended for segment-based interface. Dynamic segment size
enables up to 128 host buffers, while static segment size enables up to 64 host
buffers. Note: The default value of the
HostBufferSegmentSizeRx parameter is
default, which in feature set N-ANL11 corresponds to
dynamic, while in feature
set N-ANL3A it corresponded to 1 MByte.
|
| Onboard packet buffering | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 the OnBoardMemorySplit parameter has an additional value. |
| IOMMU support | Yes | Yes | - |
| Statistics | |||
| Frame classifications | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 giant undersize frames are not automatically considered as bad frames, and a frame can be large and still be a baby giant. This makes the counters RMON-compatible. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| RMON1 counters per port | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 jabbers counts all large erroneous frames including hard-sliced frames. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Extended RMON1 counters per port | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 pktsHardSlice is always 0, since all hard-sliced frames are considered to be erroneous. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Checksum counters per port | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 IP the checksum counters are always 0 since IP, UDP and TCP checksum verification is not supported. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| Packet decoding counters per port | Yes | Yes | - |
| Extended drop counters per port | Yes | Yes | In feature set N-ANL11 pktsDedup and octetsDedup are always 0, since deduplication is not supported, and pktsMacBandwidth is also always 0. See DN-1128 for the implementation in feature set N-ANL11. |
| IP fragment counters per port | Yes | Yes | - |
| Statistics per color | Yes | Yes | - |
| Statistics per stream ID | Yes | Yes | - |
| Synchronized statistics across SmartNICs | Yes | Yes | - |
| Performance | |||
| PCIe performance for NT100E3-1-PTP | 56 Gbit/s | 112 Gbit/s | - |
| PCIe performance for NT40E3-4-PTP and NT20E3-2-PTP | 56 Gbit/s | 56 Gbit/s | - |
| Other features | |||
| Properties | No | Yes | See also DN-0810 and DN-0449. |
| Operating Systems | |||
| Linux | Yes | Yes | More versions are supported in Link™ Capture Software 11.6 than in Green Bay 2. |
| FreeBSD | Yes | No | - |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | Link™ Capture Software 11.6 only supports Windows Server 2016, 64-bit. |