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Virtual-Channel Flow Control
March 1992 (vol. 3 no. 2)
pp. 194-205
Network throughput can be increased by dividing the buffer storage associated with each network channel into several virtual channels. Each physical channel is associated with several small queues, virtual channels, rather than a single deep queue. The virtual channels associated with one physical channel are allocated independently but compete with each other for physical bandwidth. Virtual channels decouple buffer resources from transmission resources. This decoupling allows active messages to pass blocked messages using network bandwidth that would otherwise be left idle. The paper studies the performance of networks using virtual channels using both analysis and simulation. These studies show that virtual channels increase network throughput, by a factor of four for 10-stage networks, and reduce the dependence of throughput on the depth of the network.

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Index Terms:
Index Termsflow control; buffer storage; network channel; virtual channels; physical channel;queues; physical bandwidth; buffer resources; transmission resources; active messages;network bandwidth; performance; simulation; network throughput; buffer storage;multiprocessor interconnection networks; performance evaluation; queueing theory;storage allocation; storage management; virtual storage
Citation:
W.J. Dally, "Virtual-Channel Flow Control," IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 194-205, March 1992, doi:10.1109/71.127260
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