Centralized and software-based run-time traffic management inside configurable regions of interest in mesh-based networks-on-chip

Abstract

This work proposes the introduction of multiple spatially independent network interfaces in order to connect computational resources to mesh-based Networks-on-Chip (NoCs). Furthermore, a flexible system for traffic monitoring is introduced supporting runtime reconfigurability as well as software-based centralized data aggregation and evaluation. These approaches are combined to form a sophisticated framework for runtime traffic management of NoC-based many-core systems exploiting the dual-path options of the underlying network. Simulations show that this framework is capable of significantly decelerating thermal wear-out, while improving performance characteristics (e. g. packet delay) at moderate additional costs (i. e. power dissipation).