As computer networks increase in speed, it becomes difficult to monitor and manage the transmitted digital content. To alleviate these problems, hardware-based search (FPgrep) and search-and-replace (FPsed) modules have been developed. FP-grep has the ability to scan packet payloads for a given set of regular expressions and pass or drop packets based on the payload contents. FPsed also scans packet payloads for a set of regular expressions and adds the ability to modify the payload if desired. The hardware circuits that implement the FPgrep and FPsed modules can be generated, compiled, and synthesized using a simple web interface. Once a module is created it is programmed into logic on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The FPgrep and FPsed modules use FPGAs to process packets at the full rate of Gigabit-speed networks. Both modules, along with several supporting applications were developed and tested using the Field Programmable Port Extender (FPX) platform. Applications developed for the modules currently include a spam filter, virus protection, an information security filter, as well as a copyright enforcement function
