A new routing algorithm for irregular mesh NoCs

Abstract

Network-on-Chips (NoCs) usually use regular mesh-based topologies. Regular mesh topologies are not always efficient because of power and area constraints which should be considered in designing system-on-chips. To overcome this problem, irregular mesh NoCs are used for which the design of routing algorithms is an important issue. This paper presents a novel routing algorithm for irregular mesh-based NoCs called ldquoi-routerdquo. In contrast to other routing algorithms, this algorithm can be implemented on any arbitrary irregular mesh NoC without any change in the place of IPs. In this algorithm, messages are routed using only 2 classes of virtual channels. Simulation results show that using only 2 virtual channels, ldquoi-routerdquo exhibits a better performance compared to other algorithms already proposed in the same context.