Quality-of-Service in NoCs 137
above. Store-and-forward switching takes the opposite approach, and de-
mands relatively deep buffering (at least enough locations to hold a whole
packet) in return for simple, predictable packet forwarding patterns. Store-
and-forward is very amenable to characterization and simplifies the task of
predicting and bounding switching latencies. A store-and-forward NoC with
simple priority mechanisms can already provide latency and bandwidth guar-
antees. Of course, this type of switching incurs a large area cost, and is not
optimized for average-case performance.
4.2.3 Other Methods for Traffic Class Segregation
The two techniques for traffic class segregation discussed above are not neces-
sarily used in isolation. The clearest ...