A New Theory of Deadlock-free Adaptive Multicast Routing in Wormhole Networks

A theory for the design of deadlock-free adaptive routing algorithms for wormhole networks has been proposed in 11, 14]. This theory supplies the suu-cient conditions for an adaptive routing algorithm to be deadlock-free, even when there are cyclic dependencies between channels. Also, two design methodologies have been proposed. Multicast communication refers to the delivery of the same message from one source node to an arbitrary number of destination nodes. Two multicast wormhole routing methods have been presented in 22] for multi-computers with 2D-mesh and hypercube topologies. This paper develops the theoretical background for the design of deadlock-free adaptive multicast routing algorithms for wormhole networks. Some basic deeni-tions and two theorems are proposed, developing conditions to verify that an adaptive multicast routing algorithm is deadlock-free, even when there are cyclic dependencies between channels. As an example, the multicast routing algorithms presented in 22] are extended , so that they can take advantage of the alternative paths ooered by the network.