Efficient and Deadlock-Free Tree-Based Multicast Routing Methods for Networks-on-Chip (NoC)

摘要

This chapter presents a new efficient and deadlock free tree-based multicast routing method and concept. The presented deadlock-free multicast routing algorithm can be implemented on a network-on-chip (NoC) router microarchitecture, realizing a mesh planar network topology. The NoC microarchitecture supports both deadlock-free static and efficient adaptive tree-based multicast routing. Multicast packets are routed and scheduled in the NoC by using a flexible multiplexing/interleaving technique with wormhole switching. The flexibility of the proposed multicast routing method is based on a locally managed packet identity (ID-tag) attached to every flit. This concept allows different packets to be interleaved at flit-level in a single buffer pool on the same link. Furthermore, a pheromone tracking strategy presented in this chapter, which is used to reduce communication energy in the adaptive tree-based multicast routing method. The strategy is used to perform efficient spanning trees for the adaptive tree-based multicast routing which are generated at runtime.