Effect of hot spot on the performance of multistage interconnection networks

Hot spots in multistage interconnection networks (MSINs) results in performance degradation of the network. The authors develop an analytical model for the performance evaluation of unbuffered MSINs under a single hot spot, followed by a performance comparison with buffered MSINs. For uniform traffic, a buffered network performs better than an unbuffered network. For a nonuniform traffic pattern causing congestion (for example, tree saturation) in the network, an unbuffered network outperforms a buffered network. This leads the authors to suggest a hybrid network which will be capable of switching from the buffered mode to the unbuffered mode in the presence of network congestion