Abstract: For the intension of buffering resources in network-on-chip (NoC), a buffer allocation algorithm is proposed. Given buffering space budget, our algorithm automatically allocates the resources on each input channel, in different routers across the chip, to match the traffic load, such that the overall performance is maximized. In the algorithm, a novel analytical model for adaptive routing is used to quickly detect potential performance bottlenecks in the system. Simulation results indicate that our algorithm can get lower average packet latency than uniform allocation strategy, and about 33% savings in buffering resources can be achieved.