An administrator is extensively using VXLAN on FortiGate. Which specialized acceleration hardware does FortiGate need to improve its performance?

The NP7 (Network Processor 7) is a specialized System-on-a-Chip (SoC) designed by Fortinet to accelerate network-intensive tasks. Its functions include offloading traffic from the main CPU for operations such as routing, NAT, and handling various tunneling protocols. Specifically, the NP7 processor provides hardware acceleration for VXLAN encapsulation and decapsulation, which significantly improves performance and throughput in environments that heavily utilize VXLAN for network virtualization.

B. SP5: The SP5 (Security Processor 5) is designed for cryptographic acceleration, primarily offloading IPsec and SSL VPN encryption and decryption, not network tunneling protocols like VXLAN.
C. СР9: The CP9 (Content Processor 9) accelerates content-level security inspection, such as Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), antivirus (AV) scanning, and SSL/TLS deep inspection.
D. NTurbo: NTurbo is a feature that offloads firewall sessions to network processors (like the NP7). It is not the hardware itself but rather a mechanism that utilizes the NP hardware.

1. Fortinet Document Library

FortiOS 7.4.0

Hardware Acceleration Guide:

Section: "NP7 processors" -> "NP7 features". This section explicitly lists "VXLAN and GENEVE tunneling" as a feature offloaded by the NP7 processor.

Section: "SP5 processors". This section details that SP5 processors accelerate IPsec encryption and decryption.

Section: "CP9 processors". This section describes the CP9's role in offloading flow-based and proxy-based content inspection.

Section: "NTurbo". This section defines NTurbo as a feature for offloading firewall sessions to network processors

confirming it is not the hardware component itself.