Analytical performance modelling of adaptive wormhole routing in the star interconnection network

The star graph was introduced as an attractive alternative to the well-known hypercube and its properties have been well studied in the past. Most of these studies have focused on topological properties and algorithmic aspects of this network. Although several analytical models have been proposed in the literature for different interconnection networks, none of them have dealt with star graphs. This paper proposes the first analytical model to predict message latency in wormhole-switched star interconnection networks with fully adaptive routing. The analysis focuses on a fully adaptive routing algorithm which has shown to be the most effective for star graphs. The results obtained from simulation experiments confirm that the proposed model exhibits a good accuracy under different operating conditions

A Physical Particle and Plane Framework for Load Balancing in Multiprocessors

Different models for load balancing have been proposed before, each of which has its own features and advantages when considered for a specific scenario. Yet, nearly all of the existing techniques have assumed an oversimplified model of the system which is often not the case of the real world. In this paper, a new gradient based algorithm for dynamic load balancing on multiprocessors is proposed. This algorithm is an analogy of a classical physical model of a Particle & Plane system which operates based on the classic laws of physics dictated by the nature. 1

The impacts of timing constraints on virtual channels multiplexing in interconnect networks

Interconnect networks employing wormhole-switching play a critical role in shared memory multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoC) designs, multicomputer systems and system area networks. Virtual channels greatly improve the performance of wormhole-switched networks because they reduce blocking by acting as "bypass" lanes for non-blocked messages. Capturing the effects of virtual channel multiplexing has always been a crucial issue for any analytical model proposed for wormhole-switched networks. Dally has developed a model to investigate the behaviour of this multiplexing which have been widely employed in the subsequent analytical models of most routing algorithms suggested in the literature. It is indispensable to modify Dally's model in order to evaluate the performance of channel multiplexing in more general networks where restrictions such as timing constraints of input arrivals and finite buffer size of queues are common. In this paper we consider timing constraints of input arrivals to investigate the virtual channel multiplexing problem inherent in most current networks. The analysis that we propose is completely general and therefore can be used with any interconnect networks employing virtual channels. The validity of the proposed equations has been verified through simulation experiments under different working conditions

Performance analysis of wormhole routing in multicomputer interconnection networks

Perhaps the most critical component in determining the ultimate performance potential of a multicomputer is its interconnection network, the hardware fabric supporting communication among individual processors. The message latency and throughput of such a network are affected by many factors of which topology, switching method, routing algorithm and traffic load are the most significant. In this context, the present study focuses on a performance analysis of k-ary n-cube networks employing wormhole switching, virtual channels and adaptive routing, a scenario of especial interest to current research. This project aims to build upon earlier work in two main ways: constructing new analytical models for k-ary n-cubes, and comparing the performance merits of cubes of different dimensionality. To this end, some important topological properties of k-ary n-cubes are explored initially; in particular, expressions are derived to calculate the number of nodes at/within a given distance from a chosen centre. These results are important in their own right but their primary significance here is to assist in the construction of new and more realistic analytical models of wormhole-routed k-ary n-cubes. An accurate analytical model for wormhole-routed k-ary n-cubes with adaptive routing and uniform traffic is then developed, incorporating the use of virtual channels and the effect of locality in the traffic pattern. New models are constructed for wormhole k-ary n-cubes, with the ability to simulate behaviour under adaptive routing and non-uniform communication workloads, such as hotspot traffic, matrix-transpose and digit-reversal permutation patterns. The models are equally applicable to unidirectional and bidirectional k-ary n-cubes and are significantly more realistic than any in use up to now. With this level of accuracy, the effect of each important network parameter on the overall network performance can be investigated in a more comprehensive manner than before. Finally, k-ary n-cubes of different dimensionality are compared using the new models. The comparison takes account of various traffic patterns and implementation costs, using both pin-out and bisection bandwidth as metrics. Networks with both normal and pipelined channels are considered. While previous similar studies have only taken account of network channel costs, our model incorporates router costs as well thus generating more realistic results. In fact the results of this work differ markedly from those yielded by earlier studies which assumed deterministic routing and uniform traffic, illustrating the importance of using accurate models to conduct such analyses

A Novel De Bruijn Based Mesh Topology for Networks-on-Chip

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