Dynamically Reconfigurable RF-NoC with Distance-Aware Routing Algorithm

Abstract

With the growing number of cores per processor, onchip communications are becoming a critical issue. Conventional wired mesh Networks-on-Chips (NoC) are reaching their scalability limit, paving the way for new interconnect technologies such as Radio Frequency (RF), Optics and 3D. This paper presents a new routing mechanism based on the WiNoCoD architecture, a hierarchical RF interconnect with dynamic bandwidth allocation for Chip Multi Processors (CMP). WiNoCoD consists of three levels of hierarchy with an RF NoC at the highest level, a wired mesh NoC and a crossbar at the lowest level. In this paper, we propose a new organisation for the manycore supporting the RF-NoC, and introduce a new routing algorithm that can choose between wired and RF networks in order to optimize the use of RF. We show that the new architecture improves performance in terms of latency and saturation. Platform simulations show a latency reduction for lower transaction rates of up to 10% compared to the original WiNoCoD architecture and up to 30% compared to a wired mesh NoC. Furthermore, smart routing pushes back the saturation threshold up to 20%.

Framework for Design Exploration and Performance Analysis of RF-NoC Manycore Architecture

“…In this sense, OFDMA is a very good option for low bandwidth applications, also thanks to the better frequency reuse and low latency. At best of our knowledge, there are no other simulation frameworks that allow the evaluation of such architectures by finely tuning the routing algorithm parameters for OFDMA RF-NoCs such as the ones introduced in [9,10].…”