Fault-Tolerant Routing Algorithm for Meshes without Using Virtual Channels

We present a fault-tolerant routing algorithm which requires no virtual channels for mesh networks. Our method employs the concepts of fault rings and fault chains, which were previously used with virtual channels, to facilitate fault-tolerant routing. Typically, the number of faults that can be tolerated in a mesh without virtual channels is very small, or the number of nonfaulty nodes that must be disabled is large. The method tolerates any number of faults without disabling a large number of nonfaulty nodes. The proposed algorithm tolerates any number of faults without disabling a large number of nonfaulty nodes. Moreover, only the nodes on fault rings and fault chains need to maintain a small amount of routing information. The algorithm avoids the formation of the rightmost column segment of a circular waiting path to ensure the property of deadlock freedom. Simulations have been conducted to evaluate the performance of our algorithm without virtual channels.