Scalable Photonic Networks-on-Chip Architecture Based on a Novel Wavelength-Shifting Mechanism

Since Photonic Networks-on-Chip (PNoCs) were proposed, there was an unanimity about the benefits that photonic links could bring to the on-chip interconnection. However, a debate always takes place regarding the suitable architecture and routing scheme to be used. This debate concerns the use of fully photonic PNoC or an Electro-assisted one. Both schemes have their pros and cons, but the main drawback in both architectures is their scalability. We propose in this paper an alternative to these two conventional PNoC architectures. Our proposed system is based on a novel Wavelength-Shifting mechanism, which combines the benefits of the previously mentioned schemes while limiting their drawbacks. The proposed system was validated by an analytical model, in addition to a set of simulations using synthetic and realistic traffic patterns. Evaluation results show that compared to the electro-assisted architectures, we could enhance the latency, power, and bandwidth by an order of magnitude, reaching a performance similar to the fully photonic architecture. In addition, the number of used photonic devices still much lower than the one used in conventional fully photonic architectures by an average of 60 percent. Furthermore, the new wavelength-shifting mechanism is highly scalable, and it is not affected anymore by the communication's distance, nor the traffic pattern, which make it a promising solution to replace existing conventional architectures.