what is npu-offload

[bnrumesh]

Dear Mate,

what  npu-offload and what is use case to use  npu-offload in forti SDWAN.

Thanks

[ozkanaltas]

Hello @bnrumesh ,

NPU offload actually runs continuously in the background. NPUs (Network Processing Unit), as the name suggests, are specific processors. After FortiGate completes the 3-way handshake on the CPU, it transfers the relevant traffic to the NPU. Since the NPU is designed only to process network traffic, it processes this traffic much faster than the CPU. Specifically, there is no option that you can use under sd-wan.

If you want, you can review the hardware acceleration document from the link below for more detailed information on this subject.

https://fortinetweb.s3.amazonaws.com/docs.fortinet.com/v2/attachments/8eb9ba85-aaa9-11ec-9fd1-fa163e...

[Toshi_Esumi]

To supplement (or visualize) @ozkanaltas explained, I'll post Cisco's Express CEF architecture diagram here since FTNT doesn't have a good diagram published. Just replace the bottom half of this diagram as FGT's NPU and its memory. Both Cisco and Juniper has the same, or similar architecture separating RIB for CPU and FIB for forwarding hardware. And most of decent highend vendor products like FTNT are doing the same. You can use these terminology to search more detail about the technology online.

 
Toshi