METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ROUTING DATA IN AN INTER-NODAL COMMUNICATIONS LATTICE OF A MASSIVELY PARALLEL COMPUTER SYSTEM BY EMPLOYING BANDWIDTH SHELLS AT AREAS OF OVERUTILIZATION

摘要

A massively parallel computer system contains an inter-nodal communications network of node-to-node links. An automated routing strategy routes packets through one or more intermediate nodes of the network to reach a final destination. The default routing strategy is altered responsive to detection of overutilization of a particular path of one or more links, and at least some traffic is re-routed by distributing the traffic among multiple paths (which may include the default path). An alternative path may require a greater number of link traversals to reach the destination node.