What is npu offload in Fortinet firewall?

NPU (Network Processing Unit) offload is a feature of Fortinet firewalls that allows certain network processing tasks to be handled by specialized hardware rather than the main CPU. This can improve the performance and efficiency of the firewall by allowing it to handle more traffic and perform complex tasks more quickly. Examples of tasks that can be offloaded to an NPU include packet filtering, VPN encryption/decryption, and network address translation (NAT).

In Fortinet firewalls, NPU (Network Processing Unit) offload refers to the capability of offloading certain network processing tasks to specialized hardware accelerators, namely NPUs. These NPUs are designed to handle specific types of network traffic efficiently, such as packet forwarding, security processing (like encryption/decryption, IPS/IDS, etc.), and other network-related operations.

By offloading these tasks to dedicated hardware, the firewall can achieve higher performance and throughput while maintaining security effectiveness. It helps in optimizing the utilization of the firewall's general-purpose CPU resources, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks and ensuring that the firewall can handle high volumes of traffic without becoming a bottleneck.

Overall, NPU offload enhances the performance and scalability of Fortinet firewalls, making them capable of handling demanding network environments more effectively.