Heuristic fault-tolerant routing strategies for a multiprocessor network

We examine the suitability of three heuristic search algorithms (Greedy Constructive Scheme, Best First Search and A^*) for use as routing strategies on a faulty multiprocessor network. Our search space is a simulated 5 × 5 × 5 (125-node) multiprocessor mesh network. Each virtual node comprises a processor and a communications switch supporting explicit message backtracking. Their performances are compared for up to 20% of randomly generated faulty links. The results show that heuristic search algorithms can be implemented as fault-tolerant routing strategies and that the modified Best First Search routing strategy performed consistently better with significantly less degradation than the Greedy Constructive Scheme and the A^* strategies.