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from source to destination, or the number of links it traverses, defines the hop
count. This is a very simple and useful means for measuring network latency,
since every node and link incurs some propagation delay, even when there is
no contention.
The first aspect to take into account when selecting which topology to use
for a network is the patterns of traffic that will go through the network. So, in
order to determine the most appropriate topology for a system an investigation
of the advantages and drawbacks of a number of common topologies with
respect to the application at hand must be done during the early design stages.
The most common topologies in NoC designs are 2-D mesh and torus,
which constitute over 60% of cases.
3.4.2