A Chronological Analysis of the Evolution of SmartNICs

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ajayi, Olasupo, Grant, Ryan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ajayi, Olasupo
Grant, Ryan
author_facet Ajayi, Olasupo
Grant, Ryan
contents Network Interface Cards (NICs) are one of the key enablers of the modern Internet. They serve as gateways for connecting computing devices to networks for the exchange of data with other devices. Recently, the pervasive nature of Internet-enabled devices coupled with the growing demands for faster network access have necessitated the enhancement of NICs to Smart NICs (SNICs), capable of processing enormous volumes of data at near real-time speed. However, despite their popularity, the exact use and applicability of SNICs remains an ongoing debate. These debates are exacerbated by the incorporation of accelerators into SNIC, allowing them to relieve their host's CPUs of various tasks. In this work, we carry out a chronological analysis of SNICs, using 370 articles published in the past 15 years, from 2010 to 2024, to gain some insight into SNICs; and shed some light on their evolution, manufacturers, use cases, and application domains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_04054
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Chronological Analysis of the Evolution of SmartNICs
Ajayi, Olasupo
Grant, Ryan
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Networking and Internet Architecture
Network Interface Cards (NICs) are one of the key enablers of the modern Internet. They serve as gateways for connecting computing devices to networks for the exchange of data with other devices. Recently, the pervasive nature of Internet-enabled devices coupled with the growing demands for faster network access have necessitated the enhancement of NICs to Smart NICs (SNICs), capable of processing enormous volumes of data at near real-time speed. However, despite their popularity, the exact use and applicability of SNICs remains an ongoing debate. These debates are exacerbated by the incorporation of accelerators into SNIC, allowing them to relieve their host's CPUs of various tasks. In this work, we carry out a chronological analysis of SNICs, using 370 articles published in the past 15 years, from 2010 to 2024, to gain some insight into SNICs; and shed some light on their evolution, manufacturers, use cases, and application domains.
title A Chronological Analysis of the Evolution of SmartNICs
topic Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.04054