Design and FPGA Implementation of a Low- Power Enable-Controlled Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM)

Abstract: Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) is widely employed in high-speed networking, packet classification, routing tables, and pattern matching applications because of its capability to perform parallel search operations within a single clock cycle. However, conventional TCAM architectures suffer from excessive dynamic power consumption due to the simultaneous activation of all memory cells during search operations, limiting their applicability in power-constrained FPGA-based embedded systems. This paper presents the design and FPGA implementation of a Low-Power Enable-Controlled Ternary Content Addressable Memory (EC-TCAM) that significantly reduces energy consumption without compromising search accuracy or operating speed. The proposed architecture incorporates an enable-controlled search mechanism that selectively activates only the required TCAM blocks based on input conditions, thereby minimizing unnecessary switching activity and reducing dynamic power dissipation. The design is described using Verilog HDL and synthesized on a Xilinx FPGA platform to evaluate hardware performance in terms of resource utilization, operating frequency, latency, and power consumption. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed EC-TCAM achieves substantial power savings while maintaining high search throughput and low latency compared with conventional TCAM architectures. The proposed design offers an energy-efficient and scalable solution for next-generation networking, deep packet inspection, software-defined networking (SDN), and Internet of Things (IoT) applications requiring high-speed associative memory.

Keywords: Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM), Low-Power Design, Enable-Controlled Architecture, FPGA Implementation, Verilog HDL.