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High Performance Network-on-Chip Through MPLS

Mohammad Reza Nouri Rad
Department of Computer Engineering Islamic Azad University KhorramAbad Branch, Iran

Reza Kourdy
Department of Computer Engineering Islamic Azad University KhorramAbad Branch, Iran

Abstract In this paper, we discuss types of services for supporting Quality of services (QoS) in networks-on-Chip. Multi Protocol Label Switching(MPLS) provides the flexibility of being able to Forwarding Equivalence Classes and the ability to create a forwarding hierarchy via label stacking. All of these techniques facilitate the operation of Quality of Service. Through MPLS-TE (Traffics Engineering) functions such as network resources optimization, strict Quality of Service voice data delivery, and fast recovery on link or node failures can ensured. We simulate Ring NoC architecture with Network Simulator 2 (NS2). The simulation results reveal the applicability of the proposed architecture, which can support types of services with simplicity of internetwork connection of Ring architecture. Keywords- Network-on-Chip, MultiProtocol Label Switching, Quality-of-Service , Re-routing mechanism.

integrate the traditional Internet Protocol (IP) routing and switching technologies because it provides end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS), guarantees Traffic Engineering, and support Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). However, MPLS must use path restoration schemes to guarantee the delivery of packets through a network.[6] Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an alternative to integrate the traditional Internet Protocol (IP) routing and switching technologies because it provides end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS), guarantees Traffic Engineering, and support Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). However, MPLS must use path restoration schemes to guarantee the delivery of packets through a network [7]. The Node Architecture of MPLS is shown in Fig. 1.

INTRODUCTION

Systems-on-chip (SoCs) for multimedia or telecommunication applications will contain a large number of processing elements (PEs) such as a DSP processor, RISC CPU, embedded RAM, graphics engine, etc. As a result, there is a need for high-throughput communications links between these blocks. There exist many bus based SoCs which are widely used in industry such as AMBA [1], IBM Core-Connect [2], Pi-Bus [3], etc. During the last years, Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) have become a true alternative for the design of complex integrated Systems-on-Chip (SoC). Much effort has been spent for research on functionalities, mechanisms, and Quality-of-Service (QoS) features in NoCs [4]. We can view an NoC system platform as a very complex and multiprotocol network. As such, providing application-wide, endto-end quality-of-service (QoS) is crucial for optimum system performance. System-wide performance constraints require predictability of inter-block communication and QoS guarantees for the end-to-end communication. QoS is characterized by diverse parameters, such as reliability, delay, jitter, bandwidth, packet loss, and throughput [5]. For this purpose, there are recovery mechanisms for MPLS-based protection label switching path (LSP), which are protection switching and rerouting models. MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an alternative to

Fig. 1. MPLS architecture node for Label switching and L3 packet foewarding.

BACKGROUND

2.1 Bandwidth Reservation System designers will require NoC communication platforms which have a certain degree of multi-protocol support such as MPLS. Most of the existing NoC architectures are packet-switched (connectionless) NoCs. They are targeting Best-Effort (BE) traffic. Architectures offering only Best-Effort services dont reserve bandwidth

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and hence can have better average resource utilization, at the cost of unpredictable or unbounded worst-case behavior [8]. 2.2 Using MPLS For Guarantee QOS in NOCs The Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology has emerged as a connection-oriented protocol serving connectionless internet IP networks, and thus it provides the means for traffic engineering. This means that paths are set up for aggregated flows of a certain type between specified end points of the IP traffic. Also, DiffServ can support a scalable QoS. The combination of these two approaches leads to a scalable hard QoS on internet IP networks because MPLS creates paths that can be traffic engineered [9]. The MPLS Node Architecture for supporting Quality of services has been shown in Fig. 2.

When a packet arrives at a certain node, it is handled to the classifier (MPLS classifier) to classify, process, and forward it either to a local agent or to another node. In order to support MPLS real-time traffic, the Service Classifier component has been designed and implemented CBQ (Class Based Queuing), which was implemented on NS, is selected for the Packet Scheduler component.

RELATED WORK

Network-on-Chip Quality-of-Service through MPLS objective is discussed in [10], [11] and just papers that use MPLS in NOCs.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Fig. 2. conceptual model to deploy MPLS in NoCs.

Another scheme for process the traffic in order to supporting quality of services can be seen in fig 3.

4.1 MPLS Components and terms This section gives an overview of the terms associated with the MPLS technology. 1) Path Label (Associates a packet to a FEC) FEC(Forward Equivalence Class) : A subset of packets that are all treated the same way by an LSR LSP (Label Switch Path): path that a packet follows for a specific FEC Shim - Header containing a Label Stack Label Stack - Multiple labels containing information on how a packet is forwarded. 2) Routers LSR(Label Switched Router)An MPLS capable router LER(Label Edge Router) 3) Protocol LDP (Label Distribution Protocol), used to distribute Label information between MPLS-aware network devices CR-LDP (constraint-based LDP) contains extensions for LDP to extend its capabilities. This allows extending the information used to setup paths beyond what is available for the routing protocol 4) MNS(MPLS Network Simulator) Mpls-Node PDU(Protocol Data Unit) 4.2 MPLS-NoC Architecture MPLS-NoC Architectures are composed of following components: 5) Label-Edge Router The Label Edge Router (LER) operates at the edge of an MPLS network. It is necessary to include an interface (IF) module to interact with different semi-global SoC/NoC [12]. 6) Label-Switched Router A Label Switch Router (LSR) is the main component of the MPLS network. It sets up a path to other MPLS routers and forwards packets to them. 7) Label-Switched Path(LSP)

Fig. 3. process the traffic in order to supporting quality of services in MPLS NOCs.

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Within an MPLS domain, a path is set up for a given packet to travel on an FEC. The Label-Switched Path (LSP) is set up prior to data transmission. 8) MPLS-NOC MODELING 4.3 MPLS Operation The function of ingress LER is to put a label in the IP packet and forward it to the next hop in the MPLS network. This label is assigned according to the forwarding equivalence class (FEC) of the packet. In this case the IP packet is encapsulated in an MPLS PDU, with an MPLS shim header included in the packet. The main objectives of MPLS are accomplished using fixed-length labels. These labels included in an MPLS header are assigned considering FECs that determine the route of a datagram. The FECs are a representation of a group of packets that share the same requirements to their transport. These FECs can be used to support QoS operations (e.g. real time applications) [13]. This FEC to label relationship determine the Label Switched Path (LSP) of a datagram, from the ingress point to the egress point of the MPLS network. The LSP or tunnel at both ends of the MPLS network is a concatenation of the LSP segments between each node. In this tunnel the ingress node define the type of traffic and assigns a label. According to this label, the traffic is forwarded through the LSP without further examination. At the end of the tunnel, the egress node removes the label and forwards the traffic to an external network (e.g. an IP network). This type of tunnels allows the implementation of Traffic Engineering (TE) [6].

mentioned previously. Thus we can support types of Quality of Services for our communication in Network on chip.

Fig. 4. MPLS-NoC Ring architecture with IP packet forwarding.

The square was processor elements and the circle was switches that connect to each other, and our communication was IP based with one fault in communication path (see fig. 4).

EVALUATIONS

5.1 Simulation Framework In this paper, we have modeled our MPLS-NoC architecture concepts with the widely used network simulator ns-2 [14]. NS-2 has been widely applied in research related to the design and evaluation of computer networks and to evaluate various design options for NoC architectures [15], including the design of routers, communication protocols, etc.
Fig. 5. The Ring-NoC with MPLS types of services .

5.2 Simulation Results We use MPLS types of quality of services in Network on chip in Ring topology that shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 respectively. The types of services that we can supports by MPLS mechanism for NOCs are: Real time services with constraint EF as Real time services AF31 as Streaming services AF21 as High Best Effort services AF11 as Best effort services In IP NOCs, just we can consider Best Effort services for traffic but in Mpls-NOCs, we have more services that

As shown in fig. 5, our communication was between node 0 and node 4 that was in two corner of our chip. The communication path was two paths, the first path was 8_15_14_13_12 LSP and the second path was 8_9_10_11_12 LSP and the communication path between node 8 and node 12 was LSP paths. The traffic generator for Real time services with constraint has more bandwidth and the communication path for this type of traffic is 8_9_10_11_12 LSP and differ from the path that other traffics communicate with node 4 ( see fig 5) . We consider that the network link was homogeneously, and the links between switches has one Megabit/sec. The bandwidth for Real traffic (EF) is set to be 450 Kilobit/sec,

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which starts at time 10. Best effort services (AF11) and High Best Effort services (AF21) generate the constant bit rate (CBR) traffic at 250 Kilobit/sec, respectively. Streaming services (AF31) generate the CBR traffic at 350 Kilobit/sec. that showed in Fig. 6. Total rate of all traffics in 8_15_14_13_12 LSP is equals to (450 kbps+ 350 kbps + 250 kbps + 250 kbps = 1.3 Mbps). Thus the communication load between mentioned cores is more than the bandwidth in the path 8_15_14_13_12 LSP (see fig. 5 and fig. 6).

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Fig. 6. Bandwidth utilization with types of services

As shown in fig. 6, at time 10 the real traffic started, but the traffic that this type of traffic needs is more than the traffic in the communication path. Thus this type of traffic gets its remaining bandwidth from best effort (AF11) and high best effort (AF21) traffic that have less priority than real traffic (EF). The High best effort traffic (AF21) has more priority than Best effort (AF11) traffic (see Fig. 6). That equal to 50 Kilobit/sec, and the additional bandwidth that Best effort traffic needs was discarded until the time 30 that Real time traffic (EF), was stopped.

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CONCLUSION AND FUTUREWORK

[13] [14] [15]

In this paper, we have discussed the major research challenges in future NoC platforms in order to providing QoS and supports types of traffic with Multi Protocol Label Switching. We have to present a novel NoC communication platform that supports several QoS with multi-protocol concepts which were adapted from the Multi Protocol-Level Switching technique with DiffServ.