Gigabit Ethernet Switch

This project consisted of the design and development of a 4-port gigabit switch that allows the exchange of data packets between computers. The switch consists of three main elements shown in the diagram below: the input handler, the MAC table and the crossbar.

The switch receives an ethernet frame in one port, checks it for errors and forwards it to its destination using the right exit port. The switch can handle frames up to 1518 bytes in size and a maximum of eight thousand different MAC addresses.

The design was developed using Altera Quartus and tested using the simulation tool ModelSim for the FPGA Board Stratix IV from Terasic.