Improving parallel computer communication: dynamic routing balancing

Interconnection networks appear in several technological fields of great importance. An efficient design of such a network is crucial because of its impact on system performance. A routing scheme that minimises contention should be included. We have developed a new method to uniformly distribute traffic over the network called Dynamic Routing Balancing (DRB) that it is based on limited and load-controlled path randomisation in order to maintain a low message latency and avoid the formation of hot-spots. DRB has two components: Static alternative path definition and dynamic path selection policies. We present the alternative path definition and its implementation for k-ary n-cubes and midimew networks, as well as, its evaluation in terms of latency and bandwidth. Some conclusions and comparisons with existing methods are done. Also, the selection policies are described. They are designed with the goals of minimising monitoring and decision overhead.