Routing in wormhole-switched clustered networks with applications to fault tolerance

This paper presents a novel technique for routing in wormhole-switched multiprocessor interconnection networks with clustered configuration. The network model used here consists of a set of clusters interfaced through a common central network. We assume that the central network and the clusters use independent algorithms to route messages between their internal nodes. A technique for deriving a global routing algorithm based on the local algorithms is presented, which allows the transfer of messages between any pair of nodes in the network. This proposed method is shown to be deadlock-free with two virtual channels. The clustered network model and the proposed routing technique can be used to enhance the fault tolerance capability of existing routing algorithms. In particular, we describe fault-tolerant routing methods for meshes, which can tolerate any arbitrary fault distribution without disabling connected healthy nodes.