A shortly connected mesh topology for high performance and energy efficient network-on-chip architectures

Network-on-chip-based communication schemes represent a promising solution to the increasing complexity of system-on-chip problems. In this paper, we propose a new mesh-like topology called the shortly connected mesh technology (ScMesh), which is based on the traditional mesh topology, to exploit the graph symmetry properties of interconnection networks. This proposed topology not only enhances network performance by reducing the network diameter, but also provides a lower area/energy solution for interconnection network scenarios. This study analyzes and compares the performance of ScMesh to some newly improved topologies, including the WK-recursive, extended-butterfly fat tree, and diametrical mesh topologies. The experiment results indicate that ScMesh outperforms the other topologies, with throughput increases of 47.71, 33.45, and 18.64 % as well as latency decreases of 45.71, 35.84, and 14.58 % compared to the extended-butterfly fat tree, WK-recursive and diametrical mesh topologies, respectively. In addition, ScMesh achieves 41.22, 32.23, and 15.01 % lower energy consumption and 38.96, 27.43, and 18.21 % lower area overhead than the extended-butterfly fat tree, WK-recursive, and diametrical mesh topologies, respectively.