XOR-based HoL-blocking reduction routing mechanisms for direct networks

Abstract Routing is a key design parameter in the interconnection network of large parallel computers . Routing algorithms are classified into two different categories depending on the number of routing options available for each source–destination pair: deterministic (there is one path available) and adaptive (there are several ones). Adaptive routing has two opposed effects on network performance. On one hand, it provides routing flexibility that may help on avoiding a congested network area, thus improving network performance. On the other hand, it also may increase the Head-of-Line blocking effect due to more destination nodes sharing the port queues. Usually, adaptive routing uses virtual channels to provide routing flexibility and to guarantee deadlock freedom. Deterministic routing is simpler, which implies lower routing delay and it introduces less Head-of-Line blocking effect. In this paper, we propose an adaptive and HoL-blocking reduction routing algorithm for direct topologies that tries to combine the good properties of both worlds: It provides routing flexibility but also reduces the Head-of-Line blocking effect. To do that, this paper proposes several functions which use the XOR operation to efficiently distribute the packets among virtual channels based on their destination node. The resulting routing mechanisms have different properties depending on whether they enforce routing flexibility or Head-of-Line blocking reduction.