Deadlock avoidance for switches based on wormhole networks
Olav Lysne · 2003
We consider the use of wormhole routed networks as internal interconnects of switches. The interconnection of two wormhole networks that are free from deadlocks does not necessarily produce a deadlock free network. This is problematic when wormhole networks are used as switch-internal fabrics, because it severely restricts the possibilities for coupling the switches together. This paper presents a theory that can be effectively used to control this phenomenon caused by aggregated dependencies. We show that all aggregated dependencies can be removed from wormhole networks by careful inclusion of a limited number of virtual channels.