Mixed-criticality NoC partitioning based on the NoCDepend dependability technique

The deployment of mixed-criticality applications on NoC (Network-on-Chip)-based MPSoC (Multiprocessor System-on-Chip) platforms requires a stringent protection of the communication and processing resources being utilized by hard-real-time parts of the the application in order to avoid interference of less critical application parts. In this contribution we present an approach for encapsulation of critical NoC communication resources, which guarantees no interference of non-critical data packets with critical communication data on the network. It is shown, how the NoC fault-tolerance technique “NoCDepend” can be used in order to achieve partitioning of a NoC into several criticality domains without additional overhead. The shape of the protected domains is arbitrary and the method can be applied to 2D and 3D NoCs.