Modeling compiled communication costs in multiplexed optical networks

Abstract

Improvements in optical technology will enable the construction of high bandwidth, low latency switching networks. These networks have many applications in massively parallel processing. However current circuit switching and packet switching techniques are not quite suitable for controlling such networks. Time division multiplexing (TDM) schemes can improve the performance of circuit switched optical interconnection networks by taking advantage of the locality of references present in the communication patterns. In this paper we construct a model for the cost of compiled communications in circuit switched networks. We show how the cost is affected by the characteristics of the network and by the application's communication locality of references. We show how a compiler can use this information to choose the most appropriate multiplexing degree.