An Efficient Method to Reliable Data Transmission in Network-on-Chips

Abstract

Data transmission in Network-on-Chips (NoCs) is a serious problem due to cross talk faults happening in adjacent communication links. This paper proposes an efficient flow-control method to enhance the reliability of packet transmission in Network-on-Chips. The method investigates the opposite direction transitions appearing between flits of a packet to reorder the flits in the packet. Flits are reordered in a fixed-size window to reduce: 1) the probability of cross talk occurrence, and 2) the total power consumed for packet delivery. The proposed flow-control method is evaluated by a VHDL-based simulator under different window sizes and various channel widths. Simulation results enable NoC designers to make a trade-off between window size, reliability and power consumption of packet delivery. This method is also compared with other cross talk tolerant methods in terms of reliability and power consumption. Comparison results confirm that the method is a cost efficient solution to overcome the cross talk problem.