Ttethernet – a Powerful Network Solution for Advanced Integrated Systems Ttethernet: a Powerful Network Solution for Advanced Integrated Systems
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GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms TTEthernet – A Powerful Network Solution for Advanced Integrated Systems TTEthernet: A Powerful Network Solution for Advanced Integrated Systems TTEthernet – A Powerful Time-Triggered switches provide ARINC 664 functionality to meet existing Network Solution requirements of avionics Ethernet networks. With TTEthernet, critical control systems, audio/video and As the most widely-installed local area network technology, standard LAN applications can share one network. TTEthernet Ethernet is used as a universal network solution in office facilitates design of mixed criticality systems and system-of- and web applications, and production facilities. Engineering, systems integration. maintenance and training costs for Ethernet-based networks are considerably lower than costs for many proprietary bus In the aviation domain, TTEthernet can be used for high- systems and Ethernet generally offers higher bandwidths. speed active controls, smart sensor and actuator networks, But when Ethernet was developed over 30 years ago, time- deterministic avionics and vehicle backbone networks, critical, deterministic or safety-relevant tasks were not taken critical audio/video delivery, reflective memory, modular into account. controls and integrated modular systems such as Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) or distributed IMA. TTEthernet also Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTEthernet) expands classical targets also critical embedded systems in aerospace and Ethernet use with powerful services (SAE AS6802) to meet defense, automotive, medical, energy production, and the new requirements of reliable, real-time data delivery industrial automation. in advanced integrated systems. In addition, TTEthernet Non-critical functions via IEEE 802.3 Ethernet (Asynchronous) Critical IMA functions via rate-constrained ARINC 664 (Asynchronous) Audio/Video delivery using time-triggered services (Synchronous) Critical (D)IMA/control functions via time-triggered services TTEthernet (Synchronous) Switch Figure 1: TTEthernet (SAE AS6802) enables design of advanced integrated systems utilizing asynchronous and synchronous communication via IEEE 802.3 Ethernet. It is scalable and supports fault-tolerant (N-redundant), time-critical and mixed criticality functions in one network. TTEthernet supports system-of-systems integration. 2 Determinism in Critical Ethernet Networks TTEthernet supports both asynchronous and synchronous Determinism is dependant on application domain require- (ARINC 664 and SAE AS6802) approaches to deterministic ments and represents predictable operation performance. networking, and enables parallel operation in mixed asyn- For networking domains, determinism is related to: chronous/synchronous networks. It is designed to cover • temporal communication behavior (message jitter cross-industry application needs and provide deterministic and latency) network operation for a broad range of different applica- • predictable bandwidth use tions. The primary reason for the integration of both SAE AS6802 and ARINC 664 on the same TTEthernet switch is the An Ethernet network with specified jitter and latency can be ensured availability of time-triggered services. Without those seen as deterministic “enough”, assuming that predictable services it would be impossible to define robust network par- data exchange without data traffic congestion is viable for a titioning for asynchronous and synchronous data flows. given application case. For ARINC 664 networks, the context of determinism is defined as the control of maximum trans- System Integration using Synchronous and Asynchronous mission delay (latency) throughout the network. Ethernet Communication Distributed functionality in advanced integrated network In the Time-Triggered Ethernet standard, SAE AS6802, systems is established by coordinated operation of differ- Time-Triggered Ethernet provides extensions to standard ent functions with different criticality-levels and quality of IEEE 802.3 to support hard real-time, rate-constrained service. In order to establish coordination among all of the and unconstrained IEEE 802.3 traffic on a common mixed- different functions on a network, some sort of “synchro- criticality network. A synchronization strategy based on nization” is required either at the network, middleware or time-triggered principles is described in the SAE AS6802 application layer, or combined at different layers at once. standard, defining a fault-tolerant self-stabilizing synchroni- zation strategy. Devices that comply with this standard are IEEE 802.3 Ethernet provides asynchronous communication capable of synchronizing their local clocks to each other in services. By constraining the maximum rate of message a fault-tolerant way. The context of determinism is defined delivery, jitter (e.g. 500µs) and latency, the deterministic as exact system timing throughout the system. Messages communication behavior for avionics applications can are transferred based on a fault-tolerant system time base be accomplished without synchronous communication, with microsecond jitter. as described in the ARINC 664 (Avionics Full Duplex Ethernet) Specification. Predictable (deterministic) operation in IEEE 802.3 Ethernet networks for critical embedded systems can be achieved by: At the network level, ARINC 664 operates asynchronously and coordination among distributed functions using • Asynchronous approach (ARINC 664): Constraining the ARINC 664 networks is “synchronized” at higher-level OSI rate (frequency) of data transmissions (e.g. max. jitter layers. In this case, jitter is in Nx100 µs range and latencies 500µs, latency > jitter) with sampling rates of upto 1KHz. are in the order of 1 to 10 milliseconds or higher. High jitter Bandwidth partitioning is based on rate-constrained traf- influences the accuracy of point-to-point latency and fic shaping (in end systems) and policing (in the switch) limits maximum achievable sampling rates, especially in a • Synchronous approach (SAE AS6802): Establishing fault- complex system with several switches (multi-hop networks). tolerant synchronized operation using asynchronous Maximum latencies of 10 or more milliseconds are not Ethernet messaging with sampling rates of upto 50kHz unusual in complex ARINC 664 networks. Therefore the (jitter below few microseconds). The bandwidth partition- applications and higher layers should be designed to be ing is based on exact (µs) time base and message delivery robust against latency and high jitter. So the idea of deter- based on time-triggered services. minism here is not to constrain jitter, but to have a known • Mixed asynchronous/synchronous approach to satisfy maximum latency throughout the network. different contexts of determinism in different applications using critical Ethernet networks 3 TTEthernet: A Powerful Network Solution for Advanced Integrated Systems Determinism Context: Control jitter and exact timing in the system (µs jitter and minimize latency) Determinism Context: 10 kHz Control maximal 1000 µs latency in the system 1 kHz 100 µs 10 Hz 10 µs 1 Hz 1 µs Asynchronous Synchronous Asynchronous Synchronous (rate-constrained) (time-triggered) (rate-constrained) (time-triggered) Figure 2 Determinism context in Ethernet networks depends of the application (max. sampling rate) and the approach to system design – asynchronous (coordination and synchronization among functions is conducted at higher layers) or synchronous (control of timing and synchronization at network level). It is easier to control accurate (µs jitter!) network timing using services which are integrated closer to the com- System latency in asynchronous systems munication layer, so it makes sense to add fault-tolerant contains a large jitter-related component synchronization at the Ethernet network level as an addi- and an additional tional service (SAE AS6802). Higher layers and middleware margin to ensure maximum latency are therefore simpler and can support efficient use of computing resources. 15 µs Due to low jitter and ability to narrowly control latency, it System latency can be factored out by system is possible to precisely control network bandwidth use and 10 µs design and system its allocation to asynchronous or synchronous traffic with design and system timing robust network bandwidth partitioning. This level of control 5 ms control (Time-Triggered Architecture - TTA) supports design of well-defined and unambiguous key system interfaces to simplify system integration. So 1 ms determinism in SAE AS6802 Time-Triggered Ethernet is to minimize jitter and at the same time have well-defined Asynchronous Synchronous latency. The control of timing throughout a network system (rate-constrained) (time-triggered) also helps to reduce maximum latency. Otherwise the jitter in a system represents an uncertainty which requires Figure 3 Maximum latency throughout the system is influenced additional margins be added to the maximum latency to by jitter in asynchronous (rate constrained) and synchronous guarantee deterministic behavior. The positive side-effect (time-triggered) systems. The maximum latency in the system of a synchronous approach is that latency can be ruled out represents a trade-off between synchronous and asynchronous from system design considerations if the global time base is design paradigm. available and the jitter is in microseconds. 4 In avionics networks, the SAE AS6802 standard is a synchro- challenges for complex distributed systems by robust par- nous communication technology enabling hard real-time