Implementing a change assimilation mechanism for source routing interconnects

Abstract

Current high-performance interconnects are switch-based systems using either distributed or source routing. Usually, they incorporate a management mechanism in charge of detecting and assimilating any topological change. In order to restore the connectivity among endpoints, this mechanism must obtain the new topology, and compute and distribute a new set of fabric paths. It is desirable that the change assimilation process is simple, fast, deadlock-free and, above all, it must minimize the impact of the change on the network service. In this work we implement and evaluate a complete management mechanism for source routing networks that accomplishes all these requirements. The proposed scheme results from the combination of previous proposals for each task in the change assimilation process. © 2009 Springer.