Interconnection network design: a statistical analysis of interactions between factors

Interconnection network performance depends on several parameters, including network design parameters, network size, message traffic and message length. Simulation is the methodology usually followed in evaluation studies, because the model can more faithfully represent hardware implementation, taking into account more details. Nevertheless, the number of parameter combinations is often high, and simulations also take long to complete. Therefore, evaluation studies must choose a subset of the parameters and restrict the variability of each of them. In a previous paper (IEEE Computer Soc. TCCA Newsletter, pp. 32-37, Aug. 1995), we have proposed a methodology for evaluating interconnection networks. It is based on experimental design used in statistical studies. Using this methodology, we can study network behavior considering many parameters, running only a subset of the simulations required to study all the combination. In addition, the methodology permits us to quantify the effect of interactions among the parameters. In this paper, we make use of the second advantage of this methodology, analysing the effect of node design parameters and their interactions for an 8-ary 3-cube with adaptive wormhole routing.