SCAMPI: a scalable CAM-based algorithm for multiple pattern inspection

String matching is one of the most compute intensive steps in a network intrusion detection system. The growing network rates, rapidly approaching 10 Gbits/sec, and the large number of signatures that need to be scanned concurrently pose very demanding challenges to algorithmic design and practical implementation. In this paper we present SCAMPI, a ground-breaking string searching algorithm that is fast, space-efficient, scalable and resilient to attacks. SCAMPI is designed with a memory-centric model of complexity in mind, to minimize memory traffic and enhance data reuse with a careful compile-time data layout. The experimental evaluation executed on two families of multicore processors, Cell B.E and Intel Xeon E5472, shows that it is possible to obtain a processing rate of more than 2 Gbits/sec per core with very large dictionaries and heavy hitting rates. In the largest tested configuration, SCAMPI reaches 16 Gbits/sec on 8 Xeon cores, reaching, and in some cases exceeding, the performance of special-purpose processors and FPGA. Using SCAMPI we have been able to scan an input stream using a dictionary of 3.5 millions keywords, more than an order of magnitude larger than any published result in the literature and in commercial prototypes, at a rate of more than 1.2 Gbits/sec per processing core.