FlexOE: A congestion-aware routing algorithm for NoCs

Abstract

Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) are currently the most appropriate communication structure for many-core embedded systems. Those networks support many real-time data flows. Their performance depends directly on the routing strategy. In this paper, we present a new congestion-aware routing algorithm (FlexOE) based on a simple and flexible scheme of prioritized sets of rules. These sets of rules are based on the Odd-Even turn model, minimal paths checking, congestion information from adjacent routers and availability of output path. The algorithm FlexOE developed is integrated on a Hermes NoC, and then implemented on an FPGA. The evaluation results point out that FlexOE has greater performances than reference algorithms for some test scenarios and similar performances for others test scenarios.