Combining proprietary real-time Ethernet protocols with Time-Sensitive Networking for avionics : A simulation study in OMNeT++ with INET 4.4
Abstract: Robust real-time communication is crucial in many safety-critical systems, such as air-crafts. One example of real-time communication within an aircraft is the Ethernet-based protocol called Proprietary Real-Time Ethernet (PRTE), used for sensor data and other hard real-time information exchange. Meanwhile Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) is an emerging group of standards being developed by IEEE, which extends standard Ethernet with real-time capabilities. This thesis investigates the possibility of augmenting a Proprietary Real-Time Ethernet (PRTE) network with TSN functionality, in order to allow for additional, less safety-critical, traffic classes on the same network infrastructure while ensuring real-time correctness of PRTE. A software simulation method through the OMNeT++ 6.0 and INET 4.4 frameworks is used to create and evaluate a small model network. Realistic PRTE traffic is modelled and generated with the help of an XML file with an incomplete PRTE schedule. The same PRTE schedule file is used to calculate an 802.1Qbv schedule for protective TSN windows, used to prevent the PRTE traffic from interference. Additional traffic classes in the form of best-effort traffic are introduced to the network, and multiple network traffic scenarios are considered to evaluate the performance of the network. Both the performance of the PRTE traffic and the non-real-time critical best-effort Ethernet traffic is assessed. The TSN features successfully protect the time-sensitive traffic from interference while inducing a negligible latency increase by introducing the 802.1Q header required by TSN. The best-effort traffic throughput is lowered by a small amount, which is expected as the scheduled traffic reserves bandwidth. The worst-case end-to-end latency of the best-effort traffic is slightly increased across the board, but remains fairly similar to the baseline scenario without TSN windows. Overall, the results are promising and prove that the method can guarantee both PRTE and best-effort performance with minor performance loss.
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