Centralized end-to-end flow control in a best-effort network-on-chip

Run-time communication management in a Network-on-Chip (NoC) is a challenging task. On one hand, the NoC needs to satisfy the communication requirements (e.g. throughput) of running applications competing for NoC resources. On the other hand, the NoC resources should be managed efficiently while keeping additional management functionalities minimal. This paper details a NoC communication management scheme based on a centralized, end-to-end flow control mechanism deployed in a best-effort NoC. This scheme comes at a very low resource (i.e. limited hardware and runtime overhead) cost. We show that by using a flow control mechanism it is possible, even in a best-effort NoC, to provide sufficient communication guarantees with respect to the application requirements. Finally, we illustrate the applicability of our approach for real-life multimedia applications. Categories and Subject Descriptors C.3 [Special Purpose and Application-based Systems]: Real-time and embedded systems; D.4.4 ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: EMSOFT
• Authors: Prabhat Avasare, Vincent Nollet, Jean-Yves Mignolet, Diederik Verkest, Henk Corporaal
• Keywords: Communication Management, EMSOFT 2005, NoC Resources, Run-time Communication Management