Fault-tolerant tree-based multicasting in mesh multicomputers

We propose a fault-tolerant tree-based multicast algorithm for 2-dimensional (2-D) meshes based on the concept of the extended safety level which is a vector associated with each node to capture fault information in the neighborhood. In this approach each destination is reached through a minimum number of hops. In order to minimize the total number of traffic steps, three heuristic strategies are proposed. This approach can be easily implemented by pipelined circuit switching (PCS). A simulation study is conducted to measure the total number of traffic steps under different strategies. Our approach is the first attempt to address the fault-tolerant tree-based multicast problem in 2-D meshes based on limited global information with a simple model and succinct information.