NoC Traffic Flows

NocTrafficFlows

This file defines the NocTrafficFlows class, which contains all communication between routers in the NoC.

Overview

The NocTrafficFlows class contains all traffic flows in a given design. A traffic flow is defined by the t_noc_traffic_flow struct. Each traffic flow is indexed by a unique id that can be used to retrieve information about them.

The class also associates traffic flows to their logical source routers (start point) and logical sink routers (end point). This is useful if one wants to find traffic flows based on just the source or sink logical router. The routes for the traffic flows are expected to change throughout placement as routers will be moved within the chip. Therefore this class provides a datastructure to keep track of which flows have been updated (re-routed).

Finally, this class also stores all router blocks (logical routers) in the design.

This class will be primarily used during placement to identify which routers inside the NoC ( NocStorage ) need to be routed to each other.This is important since the router modules can be moved around to different tiles on the FPGA device.

struct t_noc_traffic_flow

#include <noc_traffic_flows.h>

Describes a traffic flow within the NoC, which is the communication between two logical routers. The NocTrafficFlows contains a number of this structure to describe all the communication happening within the NoC.

Public Functions

inline t_noc_traffic_flow(std::string source_router_name, std::string sink_router_name, ClusterBlockId source_router_id, ClusterBlockId sink_router_id, double flow_bandwidth, double max_flow_latency, int flow_priority)

Constructor initializes all variables

Public Members

std::string source_router_module_name

stores the partial name of the source router block communicating within this traffic flow. Names must uniquely identify router blocks in the netlist.

std::string sink_router_module_name

stores the partial name of the sink router block communicating within this traffic flow. Names must uniquely identify router blocks in the netlist.

ClusterBlockId source_router_cluster_id

stores the block id of the source router block communicating within this traffic flow. This can be used to retrieve the block information from the clustered netlist

ClusterBlockId sink_router_cluster_id

stores the block id of the destination router block communicating within this traffic flow. This can be used to retrieve the block information from the clustered netlist

double traffic_flow_bandwidth

The bandwidth of the information transferred between the two routers. Units in bytes per second. This parameters will be used to update the link usage in the noc model after routing the traffic flow.

double max_traffic_flow_latency

The maximum allowable time to transmit data between thw two routers, in seconds. This parameter will be used to evaluate a router traffic flow.

int traffic_flow_priority

Indicates the importance of the traffic flow. Higher priority traffic flows will have more importance and will be more likely to have their latency reduced and constraints met. Range: [0-inf)

class NocTrafficFlows

#include <noc_traffic_flows.h>

Public Functions

NocTrafficFlows()

int get_number_of_traffic_flows(void) const

Returns:

int An integer that represents the number of unique traffic flows within the NoC.

const t_noc_traffic_flow &get_single_noc_traffic_flow(NocTrafficFlowId traffic_flow_id) const

Given a unique id of a traffic flow (t_noc_traffic_flow) retrieve it from the vector of all traffic flows in the design. The retrieved traffic flow cannot be modified but can be used to retrieve information such as the routers involved.

Parameters:

traffic_flow_id – The unique identifier (NocTrafficFlowId) of the traffic flow to retrieve.

Returns:

const t_noc_traffic_flow& The traffic flow represented by the provided identifier.

const std::vector<NocTrafficFlowId> &get_traffic_flows_associated_to_router_block(ClusterBlockId router_block_id) const

Get a vector of all traffic flows that have a given router block in the clustered netlist as the source (starting point) or sink (destination point) in the flow. If the router block does not have any traffic flows associated to it then NULL is returned.

Parameters:

router_block_id – A unique identifier that represents the a router block in the clustered netlist. This router block will be the source or sink router in the retrieved traffic flows.

Returns:

const std::vector<NocTrafficFlowId>& A vector of traffic flows that have the input router block parameter as the source or sink in the flow.

int get_number_of_routers_used_in_traffic_flows(void)

Gets the number of unique router blocks in the clustered netlist that were used within the user provided traffic flows description.

Returns:

int The total number of unique routers used in the traffic flows provided by the user.

const std::vector<NocLinkId> &get_traffic_flow_route(NocTrafficFlowId traffic_flow_id) const

Gets the routed path of traffic flow. This cannot be modified externally.

Parameters:

traffic_flow_id – A unique identifier that represents a traffic flow.

Returns:

std::vector<NocLinkId>& A reference to the provided traffic flow’s routed path.

std::vector<NocLinkId> &get_mutable_traffic_flow_route(NocTrafficFlowId traffic_flow_id)

Gets the routed path of a traffic flow. The path returned can and is expected to be modified externally.

Parameters:

traffic_flow_id – A unique identifier that represents a traffic flow.

Returns:

std::vector<NocLinkId>& A reference to the provided traffic flow’s vector of links used from the src to dst.

const vtr::vector<NocTrafficFlowId, std::vector<NocLinkId>> &get_all_traffic_flow_routes() const

Gets all routed paths for all traffic flows. This cannot be modified externally.

Returns:

vtr::vector<NocTrafficFlowId, std::vector<NocLinkId>>& A reference to the provided container that includes all traffic flow routes.

const std::vector<ClusterBlockId> &get_router_clusters_in_netlist(void) const

Returns:

a vector ([0..num_logical_router-1]) where each entry gives the clusterBlockId of a logical NoC router. Used for fast lookups in the placer.

const std::vector<NocTrafficFlowId> &get_all_traffic_flow_id(void) const

Returns:

provides access to all traffic flows’ ids to allow a range-based loop through all traffic flows, used in noc_place_utils.cpp functions.

void create_noc_traffic_flow(const std::string &source_router_module_name, const std::string &sink_router_module_name, ClusterBlockId source_router_cluster_id, ClusterBlockId sink_router_cluster_id, double traffic_flow_bandwidth, double traffic_flow_latency, int traffic_flow_priority)

Given a set of parameters that specify a traffic flow, create and add the specified traffic flow it to the vector of flows in the design.

Finally, the newly created traffic flow is also added to internal datastructures that can be used to quickly look up which traffic flows contain a specific router cluster block.

Parameters:

• source_router_module_name – A string that represents the name of the source router block in the traffic flow. This is provided by the user.

• sink_router_module_name – A string that represents the name of the sink router block in the traffic flow. This is provided by the user.

• source_router_cluster_id – The source router block id that uniquely identifies this block in the clustered netlist.

• sink_router_cluster_id – The sink router block id that uniquely identifier this block in the clustered netlist.

• traffic_flow_bandwidth – The size of the data transmission in this traffic flow (units of bps).

• traffic_flow_latency – The maximum allowable delay between transmitting data at the source router and having it received at the sink router.

• traffic_flow_priority – The importance of a given traffic flow.

void set_router_cluster_in_netlist(const std::vector<ClusterBlockId> &routers_cluster_id_in_netlist)

Copies the passed in router_cluster_id_in_netlist vector to the private internal vector.

Parameters:

routers_cluster_id_in_netlist – A vector ([0..num_logical_routers-1]) containing all routers’ ClusterBlockId extracted from netlist.

void finished_noc_traffic_flows_setup(void)

Indicates that the class has been fully constructed, meaning that all the traffic flows have been added and cannot be added anymore. This function should be called only after adding all the traffic flows provided by the user. Additionally, creates the storage space for storing the routed paths for all traffic flows.

void clear_traffic_flows(void)

Resets the class by clearing internal datastructures.

bool check_if_cluster_block_has_traffic_flows(ClusterBlockId block_id) const

Given a block from the clustered netlist, determine if the block has traffic flows that it is a part of. There are three possible cases seen by this function. Case 1 is when the block is not a router. Case 2 is when the block is a router and has not traffic flows it is a part of. And finally case three is when the block is a router and has traffic flows it is a part of. This function should be used during placement when clusters are moved or placed. This function can indicate if the moved cluster needs traffic flows to be re-routed. If a cluster is a part of a traffic flow, then this means that the cluster is either the source or sink router of the traffic flow.

Parameters:

block_id – A unique identifier that represents a cluster block in the clustered netlist

Returns:

true The block has traffic flows that it is a part of

Returns:

false The block has no traffic flows it is a prt of

void echo_noc_traffic_flows(char *file_name)

Writes out the NocTrafficFlows class information to a file. This includes printing out each internal datastructure information.

Parameters:

file_name – The name of the file that contains the NoC traffic flow information

Private Functions

void add_traffic_flow_to_associated_routers(NocTrafficFlowId traffic_flow_id, ClusterBlockId associated_router_id)

Given a router that is either a source or sink of a traffic flow, the corresponding traffic flow is added to a vector of traffic flows associated to the router.

Parameters:

• traffic_flow_id – A unique id that represents a traffic flow.

• associated_router_id – A ClusterBlockId that represents a router block.

• router_associated_traffic_flows – A datastructure that stores a vector of traffic flows for a given router block where the traffic flows have the router as a source or sink within the flow.

Private Members

vtr::vector<NocTrafficFlowId, t_noc_traffic_flow> noc_traffic_flows

contains all the traffic flows provided by the user and their information

std::vector<NocTrafficFlowId> noc_traffic_flows_ids

contains all the traffic flows ids provided by the user

std::vector<ClusterBlockId> router_cluster_in_netlist

contains the ids of all the router cluster blocks within the design

std::unordered_map<ClusterBlockId, std::vector<NocTrafficFlowId>> traffic_flows_associated_to_router_blocks

Each traffic flow is composed of a source and destination router. If the source/destination routers are moved, then the traffic flow needs tp be re-routed.

This datastructure stores a vector of traffic flows that are associated to each router cluster block. A traffic flow is associated to a router cluster block if the router block is either the source or destination router within the traffic flow.

This is done so that during placement when a router cluster block is moved then the traffic flows that need to be re-routed due to the moved block can quickly be found.

bool built_traffic_flows

Indicates whether the the NocTrafficFlows class has been fully constructed. The expectation is that all the traffic flows will be added in one spot and will not be added later on. So this variable can be used to check whether all the traffic flows have been added or or not. The variable should be used to ensure that this class is not modified once all the traffic flows have been added.

vtr::vector<NocTrafficFlowId, std::vector<NocLinkId>> traffic_flow_routes

Stores the routes that were found by the routing algorithm for all traffic flows within the NoC. This is initialized after all the traffic flows have been added. This datastructure should be used to store the path found whenever a traffic flow needs to be routed/ re-routed. Also, this datastructure should be used to access the routed path of a traffic flow.