Buffered fixed routing: a routing protocol for real-time transport in grid networks

We propose a new routing protocol called buffered fixed routing (BFR) for real-time applications on grid networks. While previous routing protocols for grid networks have been designed to improve network throughput, the BFR scheme is proposed to guarantee the end-to-end packet delay and sequencing without loss by using finite buffers at each node. Thus the proposed scheme can satisfy quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of real-time applications. The BFR scheme uses the token on the row ring to provide QoS guarantees. The performance of the BFR scheme is analyzed by using the Geom/Geom/1 queueing system under uniform traffic. In the simulation, the BFR scheme shows the zero-loss, high-throughput performance with the minimum delay variation compared to other routing protocols such as store and forward routing, deflection routing and vertical routing. In addition, it has shown the smallest average delay at intermediate and heavy loads.