Packet classification plays a crucial role for a number of network services such as policy-based routing, firewalls, and traffic billing,\nto name a few. However, classification can be a bottleneck in the above-mentioned applications if not implemented properly and\nefficiently. In this paper, we propose PCIU, a novel classification algorithm, which improves upon previously published work. PCIU\nprovides lower preprocessing time, lower memory consumption, ease of incremental rule update, and reasonable classification time\ncompared to state-of-the-art algorithms. The proposed algorithm was evaluated and compared to RFC and HiCut using several\nbenchmarks. Results obtained indicate that PCIU outperforms these algorithms in terms of speed, memory usage, incremental\nupdate capability, and preprocessing time. The algorithm, furthermore, was improved and made more accessible for a variety\nof applications through implementation in hardware. Two such implementations are detailed and discussed in this paper. The\nresults indicate that a hardware/software codesign approach results in a slower, but easier to optimize and improve within time\nconstraints, PCIU solution. A hardware accelerator based on an ESL approach using Handel-C, on the other hand, resulted in a\n31x speed-up over a pure software implementation running on a state of the art Xeon processor.
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