Dynamic power management for power optimization of interconnection networks using on/off links

Abstract

Power consumption in interconnection networks has become an increasingly important architectural issue. The links which interconnect network node routers are a major consumer of power and devour an ever-increasing portion of total available power as network bandwidth and operating frequencies upscale. In this paper, we propose a dynamic power management policy where network links are turned off and switched back on depending on network utilization in a distributed fashion. We have devised a systematic approach based on the derivation of a connectivity graph that balances power and performance for a 2D mesh topology. This coupled with a deadlock-free, fully adaptive routing algorithm guarantees packet delivery. Our approach realizes up to 37.5% reduction in overall network link power for an 8-ary 2-mesh topology with a moderate network latency increase.