Adding mechanisms for QoS to a network-on-chip

Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) are recognized as an interconnection architecture with capability of providing scalable performance, which is an important feature for communication in future SoCs (Systems-on-Chip) with high density. Most NoC models proposed in the last years are best effort networks, which offer no guarantees of Quality of Service (QoS) in communication. However, many of the applications envisaged for future SoCs have QoS requirements. In this work, they are presented the deployment of three different mechanisms for providing QoS to a best effort NoC: circuit switching, virtual channels and virtual channels combined with aging scheduling. All the deployments were made in VHDL, and testbenches were used to verify their correct operation. SystemC-based models were also described in order to evaluate the impact of these techniques on the network performance. Results show how the implemented techniques improve the ability of the network in meeting QoS requirements.