A blocking probability study for the aethereal network-on-chip

The Æthereal network-on-chip and its later variations cover an important role in the on-chip communications field for their capability of ensuring deterministic delivery. This Æthereal feature is offered by the time-driven forwarding operation, which however also introduces possible connection blocking in the system, i.e., a proper time schedule for a given flow cannot be find and hence the communication cannot be established. This paper investigates the blocking problem in the Æthereal network-on-chip, specifically considering a scenario where reservations are performed at run-time. In particular, the paper presents and validates an analytical model to evaluate the blocking probability in the system and proposes a solution to mitigate the problem.

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