Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Improved Message Forwarding for Multi-Hop HaRTES Real-Time Ethernet Networks

  • Published:
Journal of Signal Processing Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Nowadays, switched Ethernet networks are used in complex systems that encompass tens to hundreds of nodes and thousands of signals. Such scenarios require multi-switch architectures where communications frequently occur in multiple hops. In this paper we investigate techniques to allow efficient multi-hop communication using HaRTES switches. These are modified Ethernet switches that provide real-time traffic scheduling, dynamic bandwidth management and temporal isolation between real-time and non-real-time traffic. This paper addresses the problem of forwarding traffic in HaRTES networks. Two methods have been recently proposed, namely Distributed Global Scheduling (DGS) that buffers traffic between switches, and Reduced Buffering Scheme (RBS), that uses immediate forwarding. In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of RBS within HaRTES and we carry out an experimental validation with a prototype implementation. Then, we carry out a comparison between RBS and DGS using worst-case response time analysis and simulation. The comparison clearly establishes the superiority of RBS concerning end-to-end response times. In fact, with sample message sets, we achieved reductions in end-to-end delay that were as high as 80 %.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15
Figure 16
Figure 17
Figure 18
Figure 19

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. EtherCAT does not exclude run-time traffic updates but it is essentially used with static communication requirements

References

  1. Decotignie, J.-D. (2005). Ethernet-based real-time and industrial communications. Proceedings of the IEEE, 93(6), 1102–1117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Steiner, W., Bauer, G., Hall, B., Paulitsch, M., & Varadarajan, S. (2009). TTEthernet dataflow concept. In 8th IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications.

  3. Hanzalek, Z., Burget, P., & Sucha, P. (2009). Profinet IO IRT message scheduling. In 21st Euromicro Conf. on Real-Time Sys. (ECRTS).

  4. IEEE (2011). IEEE Std. 802.1as-2011, ieee standard for local and metropolitan area networks-timing and synchronization for time-sensitive applications in bridged local area networks. IEEE, Technical Report.

  5. IEEE (2011). IEEE Std. 802.1qat, ieee standard for local and metropolitan area networks, virtual bridged local area networks, amendment 14: Stream reservation protocol. IEEE, Technical Report.

  6. IEEE (2011). IEEE Std. 802.1qav, ieee standard for local and metropolitan area networks, virtual bridged local areanetworks, amendment 12: Forwarding and queuing enhancements for time-sensitive streams. IEEE, Technical Report.

  7. Gomez-Molinero, F. (July 2007). Real-time requirement of media control applications. In 19th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems (ECRTS).

  8. Cho, C.-S., Chung, B.-M., & Park, M.-J. (2005). Development of real-time vision-based fabric inspection system. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 52(4), 1073– 1079.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kumar, A. (2008). Computer-vision-based fabric defect detection: A survey. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 55(1), 348–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hwang, C.-L., & Shih, C.-Y. (March 2009). A distributed active-vision network-space approach for the navigation of a car-like wheeled robot. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 56(3), 846–855.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Lim, H.-T., Volker, L., & Herrscher, D. (2011). Challenges in a future IP/Ethernet-based in-car network for real-time applications. In Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2011 48th ACM/EDAC/IEEE.

  12. Lim, H.-T., Weckemann, K., & Herrscher, D. (2011). Performance study of an in-car switched ethernet network without prioritization. In Proceedings of the Third international conference on Communication technologies for vehicles. Springer.

  13. Santos, R., Behnam, M., Nolte, T., Pedreiras, P., & Almeida, L. (2011). Multi-level hierarchical scheduling in ethernet switches. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT).

  14. Ashjaei, M., Pedreiras, P., Behnam, M., Bril, R. J., Almeida, L., & Nolte, T. (2014). Response time analysis of multi-hop HaRTES ethernet switch networks. In 9th International Workshop on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS).

  15. Ashjaei, M., Behnam, M., Pedreiras, P., Bril, R. J., Almeida, L., & Nolte, T. (2014). Reduced buffering solution for multi-hop HaRTES switched Ethernet networks. In The 20th IEEE International Conference on embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA).

  16. Pedreiras, P., & Almeida, L. (2005). The Industrial Communication Systems Handbook. CRC Press, ch. Approaches to Enforce Real-Time Behavior in Ethernet, ISBN: 0-8493-3077-7.

  17. Varadarajan, S., & Chiueh, T. (1998). EtheReal: a host-transparent real-time fast ethernet switch. In 6th International Conference on Network Protocols.

  18. Hoang, H., & Jonsson, M. (2003). Switched real-time ethernet in industrial applications - deadline partitioning. In 9th Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications (APCC).

  19. (2013). EPSG Draft Standard 301 Ethernet POWERLINK Communication Profile Specification Version 1.2.0, Ethernet POWERLINK Standardisation Group.

  20. (2010). IEC 61158, industrial communication networks - Fieldbus specifications.

  21. Carvajal, G., Figueroa, M., Trausmuth, R., & Fischmeister, S. (2013). Atacama: An open FPGA-Based platform for mixed-criticality communication in multi-segmented Ethernet networks. In 21st Annual International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM).

  22. Alderisi, G., Patti, G., & Bello, L. (2013). Introducing support for scheduled traffic over IEEE audio video bridging networks. In 18th IEEE Conference on Emerging Technologies Factory Automation (ETFA).

  23. Time-sensitive networking task group, available at http://www.ieee802.org/1/pages/tsn.html.

  24. Marau, R., Almeida, L., & Pedreiras, P. (2006). Enhancing real-time communication over COTS Ethernet switches. In 6th IEEE International Workshop on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS).

  25. Santos, R., Vieira, A., Pedreiras, P., Oliveira, A., Almeida, L., Marau, R., & Nolte, T. (2010). Flexible, efficient and robust real-time communication with server-based Ethernet switching. In 8th IEEE International Workshop on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS).

  26. Ashjaei, M., Behnam, M., Almeida, L., & Nolte, T. (2013). Performance analysis of master-slave multi-hop switched ethernet networks. In 8th IEEE Int. Symp. on Industrial Embedded Systems (SIES).

  27. Mifdaoui, A., Frances, F., & Fraboul, C. (2010). Performance analysis of a master/slave switched ethernet for military embedded applications. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 6(4), 534–547.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Zhang, M., Shi, J., Zhang, T., & Hu, Y. (2008). Hard real-time communication over multi-hop switched ethernet. In The IEEE Int. Conference on Networking, Architecture, and Storage (NAS).

  29. Charara, H., Scharbarg, J.-L., Ermont, J., & Fraboul, C. (2006). Methods for bounding end-to-end delays on an AFDX network. In 18th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems(ECRTS).

  30. Bauer, H., Scharbarg, J.-L., & Fraboul, C. (2010). Improving the worst-case delay analysis of an AFDX network using an optimized trajectory approach. IEEE Transaction on Industrial Informatics.

  31. Kemayo, G., Ridouard, F., Bauer, H., & Richard, P. (2013). Optimistic problems in the trajectory approach in fifo context. In 18th IEEE Conf. on Emerging Technologies Factory Automation (ETFA).

  32. Li, X., Cros, O., & George, L. (2014). The trajectory approach for AFDX FIFO networks revisited and corrected. In The 20th IEEE International Conference on embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA).

  33. Queck, R. (2012). Analysis of Ethernet AVB for automotive networks using network calculus. In IEEE International Conference on Vehicular Electronics and Safety (ICVES).

  34. Manderscheid, M., & Langer, F. (2011). Network calculus for the validation of automotive ethernet in-vehicle network configurations. In International Conference on Cyber-Enabled Distributed Computing and Knowledge Discovery (CyberC).

  35. Bordoloi, U. D., Aminifar, A., Eles, P., & Peng, Z. (2014). Schedulability analysis of ethernet AVB switches. In The 20th IEEE International Conference on embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA).

  36. Lenzini, L., Martorini, L., Mingozzi, E., & Stea, G. (2006). Tight end-to-end per-flow delay bounds in FIFO multiplexing sink-tree networks. Elsevier Performance Evaluation, vol. 63.

  37. Schmitt, J., Zdarsky, F., & Fidler, M. (2008). Delay bounds under arbitrary multiplexing: When network calculus leaves you in the lurch.... In The 27th IEEE Conference on Computer Communications.

  38. Lenzini, L., Martorini, L., Mingozzi, E., & Stea, G. (2006). A novel approach to scalable CAC for real-time traffic in sink-tree networks with aggregate scheduling. In The 1st ACM international conference on Performance evaluation methodolgies and tools.

  39. Ashjaei, M., Behnam, M., Rodriguez-Navas, G., & Nolte, T. (2013). Implementing a clock synchronization protocol on a multi-master switched ethernet network. In 18th Conference on Emerging Technologies Factory Automation (ETFA).

  40. Gessner, D., Proenza, J., Barranco, M., & Portugal, P. (2014). Towards a reliability analysis of the design space for the communication subsystem of ft4ftt. In 19th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technology and Factory Automation (ETFA).

  41. Gessner, D., Proenza, J., & Barranco, M. (2014). A proposal for managing the redundancy provided by the flexible time-triggered replicated star for ethernet. In 10th IEEE Workshop on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS).

  42. Ashjaei, M., Behnam, M., & Nolte, T. (2012). The design and implementation of a simulator for switched ethernet networks. In 3rd International Workshop on Analysis Tools and Methodologies for Embedded and Real-time Systems (WATERS).

  43. Huang, M., Lim, K., & Cong, J. (2014). A scalable, high-performance customized priority queue. In 24th International Conference on Field Programmable Logic and Applications.

  44. Santos, R. (2010). Enhanced Ethernet Switching Technology for Adaptive Hard Real-Time Applications. PhD Thesis, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research via the PRESS project. Also, it is partially supported by the Portuguese Government through FCT grants Serv-CPS PTDC / EEA-AUT / 122362 / 2010.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRTC/Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden

    Mohammad Ashjaei, Moris Behnam, Luis Almeida & Thomas Nolte

  2. DETI/IT/University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Luis Silva & Paulo Pedreiras

  3. IT/DEEC/University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Luis Almeida

  4. Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Reinder J. Bril

Authors
  1. Mohammad Ashjaei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Luis Silva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Moris Behnam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Paulo Pedreiras
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Reinder J. Bril
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Luis Almeida
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Thomas Nolte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Ashjaei.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ashjaei, M., Silva, L., Behnam, M. et al. Improved Message Forwarding for Multi-Hop HaRTES Real-Time Ethernet Networks. J Sign Process Syst 84, 47–67 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11265-015-1010-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11265-015-1010-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation