Performance Optimization and Evaluation for Mesh-Based Optical Networks-on-Chip

Optical networks-on-chips (ONoCs) are burgeoning structures of communication that can give a solution to the bandwidth and latency for multiprocessor systems-on-chips. Furthermore, photonic devices are widely used in ONoCs but suffer from crosstalk noise. Therefore, crosstalk noise is the critical factor that affects signal transmission and limits the network scale of ONoCs. To reduce the crosstalk noise sharply, an angle optimization that uses the cross angle of 60° or 120° instead of the conventional angle of 90° is proposed to optimize the Crux router. Furthermore, we present a signal transmission system simulation model for the mesh-based ONoC. For different routers applied to the mesh-based ONoC, the simulation model can present the time-domain waveform, eye diagram, and bit-error-rate (BER) curve clearly. On the basis of the analytical model, the results show that the minimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a 7 × 7 mesh-based ONoC is 20.9 dB when using optimized Crux routers, and the injection power is equal to 0 dBm, which is 2.1 dB better than using Crux routers. Therefore, the application of angle optimization to the Crux router and mesh network can minimize crosstalk noise and improve the scalability of mesh-based ONoCs.