Andres Mejia

Segment-based routing: an efficient fault-tolerant routing algorithm for meshes and tori

Computers get faster every year, but the demand for computing resources seems to grow at an even faster rate. Depending on the problem domain, this demand for more power can be satisfied by either, massively parallel computers, or clusters of computers. Common for both approaches is the dependence on high performance interconnect networks such as Myrinet, Infiniband, or 10 Gigabit Ethernet. While high throughput and low latency are key features of interconnection networks, the issue of fault-tolerance is now becoming increasingly important. As the number of network components grows so does the probability for failure, thus it becomes important to also consider the fault-tolerance mechanism of interconnection networks. The main challenge then lies in combining performance and fault-tolerance, while still keeping cost and complexity low. This paper proposes a new deterministic routing methodology for tori and meshes, which achieves high performance without the use of virtual channels. Furthermore, it is topology agnostic in nature, meaning it can handle any topology derived from any combination of faults when combined with static reconfiguration. The algorithm, referred to as segment-based routing (SR), works by partitioning a topology into subnets, and subnets into segments. This allows us to place bidirectional turn restrictions locally within a segment. As segments are independent, we gain the freedom to place turn restrictions within a segment independently from other segments. This results in a larger degree of freedom when placing turn restrictions compared to other routing strategies. In this paper a way to compute segment-based routing tables is presented and applied to meshes and tori. Evaluation results show that SR increases performance by a factor of 1.8 over FX and up*/down* routing

A Survey and Evaluation of Topology-Agnostic Deterministic Routing Algorithms

Most standard cluster interconnect technologies are flexible with respect to network topology. This has spawned a substantial amount of research on topology-agnostic routing algorithms, which make no assumption about the network structure, thus providing the flexibility needed to route on irregular networks. Actually, such an irregularity should be often interpreted as minor modifications of some regular interconnection pattern, such as those induced by faults. In fact, topology-agnostic routing algorithms are also becoming increasingly useful for networks on chip (NoCs), where faults may make the preferred 2D mesh topology irregular. Existing topology-agnostic routing algorithms were developed for varying purposes, giving them different and not always comparable properties. Details are scattered among many papers, each with distinct conditions, making comparison difficult. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the known topology-agnostic routing algorithms. We classify these algorithms by their most important properties, and evaluate them consistently. This provides significant insight into the algorithms and their appropriateness for different on- and off-chip environments.

Region-Based Routing: An Efficient Routing Mechanism to Tackle Unreliable Hardware in Network on Chips

The design of scalable and reliable interconnection networks for system on chips (SoCs) introduce new design constraints not present in current multicomputer systems. Although regular topologies are preferred for building NoCs, heterogeneous blocks, fabrication faults and reliability issues derived from the high integration scale may lead to irregular topologies. In this situation, efficient routing becomes a challenge. Although table-based routing allows the use of most routing algorithms on any topology, it does not scale in terms of latency and area. In this paper we propose the region-based routing mechanism that avoids the scalability problems of table-based solutions. From an initial topology and routing algorithm, the mechanism groups, at every switch, destinations into different regions based on the output ports. By doing this, redundant routing information typically found in routing tables is eliminated. Evaluation results show that the mechanism requires only four regions to support several routing algorithms in a 2D mesh with no performance degradation. Moreover, when dealing with link failures, our results indicate that the mechanism combined with the segment-based routing algorithm is able to pack all the routing information into eight regions providing high throughput. The paper provides also a simple and efficient hardware implementation of the mechanism requiring only 240 logic gates per switch to support eight regions in a 2D mesh topology

HiRA: A methodology for deadlock free routing in hierarchical networks on chip

Complexity of designing large and complex NoCs can be reduced/managed by using the concept of hierarchical networks. In this paper, we propose a methodology for design of deadlock free routing algorithms for hierarchical networks, by combining routing algorithms of component subnets. Specifically, our methodology ensures reachability and deadlock freedom for the complete network if routing algorithms for subnets are deadlock free. We evaluate and compare the performance of hierarchical routing algorithms designed using our methodology with routing algorithms for corresponding flat networks. We show that hierarchical routing, combining best routing algorithm for each subnet, has a potential for providing better performance than using any single routing algorithm. This is observed for both synthetic as well as traffic from real applications. We also demonstrate, by measuring jitter in throughput, that hierarchical routing algorithms leads to smoother flow of network traffic. A router architecture that supports scalable table-based routing is briefly outlined.

On the Potentials of Segment-Based Routing for NoCs

The topology, the routing algorithm and the way the traffic pattern is distributed over the network influence the ultimate performance of the interconnection network. Off-chip high-performance interconnects provide mechanisms to support irregular topologies, whereas in on-chip networks the topology is fixed at design time. Continuous trend on device miniaturization and high volume manufacturing increase the probability of faults in embedded systems, leading to irregular topologies. Also, partitionability and virtualization of the entire on-chip network is envisioned for future systems. These trends lead to the need of routing algorithms that adapt to the static or dynamic changes in irregular topologies.In this paper we analyze the benefits of the reconfiguration at the routing algorithm level in order to allow topology changes. That is, support topology changes that appear on the network due to different reasons including switch or link failures, energy reduction decisions or design and manufacturing issues. We perform an exhaustive analysis on the performance impact of the routing algorithm in a NoC system. Our aim is to enable the possibility of reconfiguration of the routing algorithm. We take advantage on the flexibility offered by the segment-based routing methodology that allows a fast computation of many deadlock-free routing algorithms by obtaining different segmentation processes and routing restriction policies. This study analyzes the potentials offered by SR. Results show that the election of the routing algorithm may greatly affect the final performance of the network. Additionally, we propose an organized segmentation process that achieves reliable performance with low variability for all topologies studied under uniform traffic conditions. These results encourages us to the search of a dynamic mechanism that adapts the routing algorithm to the traffic.

Boosting Ethernet Performance by Segment-Based Routing

Ethernet is turning out to be a cost-effective solution for building cluster networks offering compatibility, simplicity, high bandwidth, scalability and a good performance-to-cost ratio. Nevertheless, Ethernet still makes inefficient use of network resources (links) and suffers from long failure recovery time due to the lack of a suitable routing algorithm. In this paper we embed an efficient routing algorithm into 802.3 Ethernet technology, making it possible to use off-the-shelf equipment to build high-performance and cost-effective Ethernet clusters, with an efficient use of link bandwidth and with fault tolerant capabilities. The algorithm, referred to as segment-based routing (SR), is a deterministic routing algorithm that achieves high performance without the need for virtual channels (not available in Ethernet). Moreover, SR is topology agnostic, meaning it can be applied to any topology, and tolerates any combination of faults derived from the original topology when combined with static reconfiguration. Through simulations we verify an overall improvement in throughput by a factor of 1.2 to 10.0 when compared to the conventional Ethernet routing algorithm, the spanning tree protocol (STP), and other topology agnostic routing algorithms such as Up*/Down* and tree-based turn-prohibition, the last one being recently proposed for Ethernet

Yield-oriented evaluation methodology of network-on-chip routing implementations

Network-on-Chip technology is gaining wide popularity for the interconnection of an increasing number of processor cores on the same silicon die. However, growing process variations cause interconnect malfunction or prevent the network from working at the intended frequency, directly impacting yield and manufacturing cost. Topology agnostic routing algorithms have the potential to tolerate process variations without degrading performance. We propose a three step methodology for evaluating routing algorithms in their ability to deal with variability. Using yield enhancement and operation speed preservation as the criteria, we demonstrate how this methodology can be used to select the best design choice among several plausible combinations of routing algorithms and implementations. Also, we show how an efficient table-less routing implementation can be used to minimise the impact of variability on manufacturing and operating frequency.

Low-latency scheduling in large switches

Scheduling in large switches is challenging. Arbiters must operate at high rates to keep up with the high switching rates demanded by multi-gigabit-per-second link rates and short cells. Low-latency requirements of some applications also challenge the design of schedulers. In this paper, we propose the Parallel Wrapped Wave Front Arbiter with Fast Scheduler (PWWFA-FS). We analyze its performance, present simulation results, discuss its implementation, and show how this scheme can provide low latency under light load while scaling to large switches with multi-terabit-per-second throughput and hundreds of ports.

A Communication-Driven Routing Technique for Application-Specific NoCs

Networks on Chip (NoCs) have been shown as an efficient solution to the complex on-chip communication problems derived from the increasing number of processor cores. One of the key issues in the design of NoCs is the reduction of both area and power dissipation. As a result, two-dimensional meshes have become the preferred topology, since it offers low and constant link delay. Unfortunately, manufacturing defects or even real-time failures often make the resulting topology to become irregular, preventing the use of traditional routing algorithms. This scenario shows the need for topology-agnostic routing algorithms that provide a valid routing solution when applied over any topology. This paper proposes a new communication-driven routing technique that optimizes the network performance for Application-Specific NoCs. This technique combines a flexible, topology-agnostic routing algorithm with a communication-aware mapping technique that matches the traffic generated by the application with the available network bandwidth. Since the mapping technique can be pruned as needed in order to fit either quality function values or time constraints, this technique can be adapted to fit with different computational costs. The evaluation results show that it significantly improves network performance in terms of both latency and power consumption.