Performance Analysis of Wormhole-switched 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. First, an accurate analytical model for wormhole-routed k-ary n-cubes with adaptive routing and uniform traffic is developed. New models are constructed for wormhole k-ary n-cubes under adaptive routing and non-uniform communication workloads, such as hotspot traffic, matrix-transpose and digit-reversal permutation patterns. 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.

Autorentext

Hamid Sarbazi-Azad received the B.Sc. degree in ECE from Shahid-Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, in 1992, the M.Sc. degree in CE from Sharif University of Technology (SUT), Tehran, Iran, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in CS from the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK, in 2002. He is now with the SUT departement of computer engineering.