Fair rate packet arbitration in Network-on-Chip

Abstract

This paper proposes two new arbitration techniques to enable fair link bandwidth allocation. One technique is a weighted round-robin scheme with weights based on the number of contending flows at the input port. The second technique is an age-based scheme with probabilistic arbitration where the traversed packet distance approximates age. Opposed to existing work, both schemes reach almost absolute fairness of link bandwidth allocation and simplify calculation of arbitration metrics.