Novel single stage multipath 8 × 8 interconnection network/switching element (SSMIN/E) architecture

Efficient and reliable interconnection networks are fundamental for maintaining performance in contemporary high-speed parallel computing systems. Traditional 8 × 8 switching elements (SEs) commonly employed in such networks provide only one fixed path between each input-output pair. This absence of redundancy results in single points of failure, making the whole system less reliable. To address the limitation discussed, this manuscript proposes a novel 8 × 8 full crossbar SE with intrinsic path redundancy. The structure employs four 3 × 3 SEs, implemented with eight 2 × 1 multiplexers and 1 × 2 demultiplexers each, to create a Single Stage Multipath Interconnection Network/Element (SSMIN/E). The proposed structure provides two parallel paths between each source-destination pair which improves fault tolerance without increasing routing complexity. The structure is motivated by Gamma interconnect network (GIN), which are appreciated for their scalable and regular structures but are limited by the single-path constraint under the SEs they utilize. The developed SSMIN/E overcomes this limitation by incorporating redundancy at the structural level. For analysis and validation, the reliability of the proposed 8 × 8 SSMIN/E architecture is compared to traditional shuffle exchange networks (SEN) and gamma networks with their newer architectural extensions. The results indicate that the proposed SSMIN/E architecture provides improved reliability and reduced path length, and it has the potential to be an effective solution for fault-tolerant interconnects in high-performance computing applications.