Performance Modeling for Interconnection Networks

摘要

Designing a parallel computer would be much easier if one interconnection network was the best for all applications and platforms. However, unforturately, no such network exists. For a fixed application domain and fixed platfor, selecting the best network can be difficult because many performance metrics and sosts could be uses. In this paper, we discuss performance problems for interconnection networks, describe performance metrics and performance modeling of interconnection networks from three aspects: analytical modeling, simulation modeling and empirical modeling. We also analyze the limitation and advantages of these models. As networked cluster computing is becoming more and more the popular choice of high speed computing, the performance of interconnection networks is becoming more and more important to system development. Traditionally, interconnection network (ICN) has been focused on interconnection topology. However, while topology is a fundamental property of ICN, it is only one of few factors determining the final performance. In this study, we investigate, the performance issues of ICN_s from user's perspective. We focus on the final delivered performance and general modeling methodologies of ICN_s. Then, we highlight some major performance metrics used in the study. Finally, we investigate different performance modeling approaches to ICN_s.