Wormhole routing

In the wormhole routing, the routing decision is taken as soon as the packet header has been received. If a possible output link is free, the header is transmitted and the rest of the packet is sent directly from the input to the output without being stored. If all the possible outputs are unavailable the packet waits in the input fifo until a possible output link is free.

The packet header, in passing through a network of RCUBEs creates a temporary circuit through which the packet flows. As the end of the packet is pulled through, this virtual circuit disappears.

A packet can pass through several RCUBEs at the same time and the head of a packet can reach its destination before the end has been transmitted by the source. The latency is thus reduced.

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