Trace-driven and processing time extensions for Noxim simulator

Simulation is one of the main tools used to analyze and test new proposals in the Network-on-Chip field. Several simulators can be found in the literature, among them the Noxim simulator stands out. It is being used by many researchers due to the wireless support and open-source availability. An important issue at the simulation phase is the choice of workload, as it may affect testing the system and its features. The correct workload can lead to rapid and efficient system development, while the wrong one may compromise the entire system evaluation. To ensure a more realistic simulation, simulators usually relies on real workloads by using a trace-driven approach. Although Noxim provides a simple support for input traces, it is very limited to a general behavior of the system, accepting only a generic injection rate parameter over time. Another important part of the simulator is the ability to consider the Processing Elements processing time. We propose in this paper an extension of the Noxim simulator to address these issues. Consequently, results are more realistic and may be possible to predict the total execution time very accurately. This extension is demonstrated and evaluated using the NAS-NPB workload.