An optimization framework for routing on optical Network-on-Chips (ONoCs) from a networking perspective

As increasing numbers of CPU cores are placed on single-processor chips, conventional electronic interconnects for on-chip communications are becoming a bottleneck, due to difficulties in meeting ever-increasing demands on throughput and increasingly undesirable energy consumption. A potential solution is offered by Optical Networks-on-Chips (ONoCs): an emerging communication architecture for new generation multicore systems. Optical interconnection among cores at the chip level can offer ultra-high communication bandwidth, low latency, and high energy efficiency. This paper provides a brief review and sheds some insights on the unique characteristics and constraints of ONoCs for designing efficient routing schemes, especially from the networking perspective. Based on the properties of ONoCs, we propose an optimization framework for routing and wavelength assignment on ONoCs, which can be used to guide the upgrade from un-optimized ONoCs to optimized ONoCs. This paper provides the insight and guidance for high-level routing design in future research.