A Metaheuristic Scheduler for Time Division Multiplexed Networks-on-Chip

This paper presents a metaheuristic scheduler for inter-processor communication in multi-processor platforms using time division multiplexed (TDM) networks on chip (NOC). Compared to previous works, the scheduler handles a broader and more general class of platforms. Another contribution, which has significant practical implications, is the minimization of the TDM schedule period by over-provisioning bandwidth to connections with the smallest bandwidth requirements. Our results show that this is possible with only negligible impact on the schedule period. We evaluate the scheduler with seven different applications from the MCSL NOC benchmark suite. In the special case of all-to-all communication with equal bandwidths on all communication channels, we obtain schedules with a shorter period than reported in previous work.