Deadlock Avoidance for Interconnection Networks with Multiple Dynamic Faults

The intensive and continuous use of high-performance computing systems for executing computationally intensive applications, coupled with the large number of elements that make them up, dramatically increase the likelihood of failures during their operation. Clearly, network faults have an extremely high impact because most routing algorithms are not designed to tolerate faults. In such algorithms, just a single fault may lead to deadlocked configurations thus preventing the correct finalization of applications. This paper introduces a new deadlock avoidance mechanism for routing algorithms designed to deal with multiple dynamic faults. The mechanism is based on adding a small-sized buffer and applying a simple set of actions when accessing output buffers with limited free space. Unlike typical static solutions, this proposal allows the design of routing algorithms capable of treating an unbounded number of dynamic faults.