Row/Column-First: A Path-based Multicast Algorithm for 2D Mesh-based Network on Chips

In this paper, we propose a new path-based multicast algorithm that is called Row/Column-First algorithm. The proposed algorithm constructs a set of multicast paths to deliver a multicast message to all multicast destination nodes. The set of multicast paths are all of row-first or column-first subcategories to maximize the multicast performance. The selection of row-first or column-first approaches is done based on the location of multicast source node i.e., how the multicast source is far from right/left and top/bottom margins of the mesh network. In this way, the proposed algorithm improves two performance criteria i.e., traffic and communication latency as compared with the well-known Column-Path multicast algorithm. In order to evaluate the proposed algorithm, an analytical model is developed to estimate the mentioned performance criteria. The modeling and simulation results show improvement of 10 and 20 percent on traffic and communication latency respectively for Row/Column-First algorithm as compared to the Column-Path algorithm.