Mathematical formalisms for performance evaluation of networks-on-chip

Abstract

This article reviews four popular mathematical formalisms— queueing theory, network calculus, schedulability analysis , and dataflow analysis —and how they have been applied to the analysis of on-chip communication performance in Systems-on-Chip. The article discusses the basic concepts and results of each formalism and provides examples of how they have been used in Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) performance analysis. Also, the respective strengths and weaknesses of each technique and its suitability for a specific purpose are investigated. An open research issue is a unified analytical model for a comprehensive performance evaluation of NoCs. To this end, this article reviews the attempts that have been made to bridge these formalisms.