Flyover Architecture for Cluster and TDM-Based Optical Network-On-Chip

Optical network-on-chip (ONoC) is a promising interconnection solution for its high bandwidth and low energy consumption. However, optical circuit-switching (OCS)-based architectures face the problem of high network congestion, low network utilization, and an overhead in power dissipation under heavy loads. In this letter, we propose an architecture called Flyover for hybrid electronic-optical network-on-chip using cluster architecture with time-division multiplex (TDM)-wavelength-division multiplex (WDM) technology. Flyover combines TDM and WDM to solve problems faced by OCS. Flyover is modularized into two network layers with cluster architecture to improve network scalability and flexibility. The state of each optical router has been configured by the control unit at the beginning of each time slot to achieve a nonblocking optical network layer. With the result of OPNET simulation, Flyover has better performance compared with equivalent OCS-mesh ONoC under various traffic patterns.