Compressionless wormhole routing: an analysis for hypercube with virtual channels

Abstract Several recent studies have shown that adaptive routing algorithms based on deadlock recovery have superior performance characteristics than those based on deadlock avoidance. Most of these studies, however, have relied on software simulation due to the lack of analytical modelling tools. In an effort towards filling this gap, this paper presents a new analytical model of compressionless routing in wormhole-routed hypercubes. This routing algorithm exploits the tight coupling between wormhole routers for flow control to detect and recover from potential deadlock situations. The advantages of compressionless routing include deadlock-free adaptive routing with no extra virtual channels, simple router design, and order-preserving message transmission. The proposed analytical model computes message latency by determining the message transmission time, blocking delay at each router, multiplexing delay at each network channel, and waiting time in the source before entering the network. The validity of the model is demonstrated by comparing analytical results with those obtained through simulation experiments.