Performance modeling of hierarchical crossbar-based multicomputer systems

Crossbar networks have been widely used as the interconnection mechanism in many multiprocessor/multicomputer systems. Crossbar networks can be categorized into three major topological classes: full-crossbar networks, multistage interconnection networks (MINs), and networks consisting of multiple levels of full crossbar connections, called hierarchical crossbar interconnection networks (HCINs). A significant amount of previous work exists in the area of performance modeling of systems with full-crossbar networks or multistage interconnection networks. However, performance modeling of multicomputer systems with HCINs has not been widely studied. This paper presents both analytical and simulation models for performance evaluation of an HCIN based on the commercial Mercury RACEway crossbar switch. The effective data transfer rate for message passing is taken as the primary performance metric and the models predict how this metric varies with the traffic load on the system. The analytical results are compared to the simulation results for different standard configurations of Mercury RACE Multicomputer Systems