Application-aware Multi-Objective Routing based on Genetic Algorithm for 2D Network-on-Chip

This paper presents a technique using a genetic algorithm to compute an efficient routing for an application-specific NoC (Network-on-Chip). The main goal of this paper is to introduce multi-objective optimization techniques to address the NoC routing. Thus, Pareto optimization has been used to determine non-dominated solutions according to two fixed objectives: (i) avoiding the reuse of same links as far as possible to reduce congestion; (ii) reducing the number of loops to limit the risk of deadlocks. The proposed method called MORGA (Multi-Objective Routing based on Genetic Algorithm) uses two steps: (i) an off-line process consisting at selecting a non-dominated solution among a pre-calculated population of solutions; (ii) an on-line process allowing the data transmission based on the built solution by the use of routing tables. MORGA is also applicable in the presence of permanent faulty links by calculating fault-free solutions. A reconfiguration of routing tables is performed when a new application is loaded on the system. Results show how a selection of the most appropriate solution can provide considerable improvement in performance.