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Design optimization of TTEthernet-based distributed real-time systems

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Abstract

Many safety-critical real-time applications are implemented using distributed architectures, composed of heterogeneous processing elements interconnected in a network. Our focus in this paper is on the TTEthernet protocol, a deterministic, synchronized and congestion-free network protocol based on the Ethernet standard and compliant with the ARINC 664 Specification Part 7. TTEthernet is highly suitable for safety-critical real-time applications since it offers separation for messages using the concept of virtual links and supports three time-criticality classes: Time-Triggered (TT), Rate-Constrained (RC) and Best-Effort. In this paper we are interested in the design optimization of TTEthernet networks used to transmit real-time application messages. Given the set of TT and RC messages, and the topology of the network, our approach optimizes the packing of messages in frames, the assignment of frames to virtual links, the routing of virtual links and the TT static schedules, such that all frames are schedulable and the worst-case end-to-end delay of the RC messages is minimized. We propose a Tabu Search-based metaheuristic for this optimization problem. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated using several benchmarks.

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Notes

  1. Audio Video Bridging is a collection of technical specifications  (IEEE 2011a; IEEE 2010; IEEE 2009; IEEE 2011b) that target synchronized communication with low jitter and low latency on Ethernet networks.

Abbreviations

ASAP:

As-soon-as-possible (ASAP)

AVB:

Audio video bridging

BAG:

Bandwidth allocation gap

BE:

Best-effort

CAN:

Controller area network

DOTTS:

Design optimization of TTEthernet-based systems

ES:

End system

ET:

Event-triggered

FIFO:

First in first out

FU:

Filtering unit

NS:

Network switch

PE:

Processing element

PFO:

Packing and fragmenting optimization

RC:

Rate-constrained

RO:

Routing optimization

SIL:

Safety-integrity level

SMT:

Satisfiability modulo theory

SO:

Scheduling optimization

SS:

Straightforward solution

TDMA:

Time-division multiple access

TP:

Traffic policing task

TR:

Traffic regulator task

TS:

Tabu search

TT:

Time-triggered

TTP:

Time-triggered protocol

VL:

Virtual link

WCD:

Worst-case end-to-end delay

\(\mathcal G(\mathcal V, \mathcal E)\) :

TTEthernet cluster

\(\mathcal V = \mathcal {ES} \cup \mathcal NS\) :

Set of all the end systems and network switches in the cluster

\(\mathcal {ES}\) :

Set of all the end systems

\(ES^{src}_i\) :

The source end system for frame \(f_i\)

\(\mathcal {ES}^{dest}_i\) :

The set of destination end systems for frame \(f_i\)

\(\mathcal {NS}\) :

Set of all the network switches

\(ES_i\) :

An end system

\(NS_i\) :

A network switch

\(\mathcal E\) :

Set of physical links

\(\mathcal L\) :

Set of dataflow links in the cluster

\(l_i\) :

A dataflow link

\(\mathcal {DP}\) :

Set of dataflow paths in the cluster

\(dp_i\) :

A dataflow path

\(\mathcal {VL}\) :

Set of virtual links in the cluster

\(vl_i\) :

A virtual link

\(BAG(vl_i)\) :

The BAG of \(vl_i\)

\(\mathcal B\) :

The set of BAG for all VLs

\(\mathcal B^{\circ }\) :

The initial set of BAG for all VLs

\(\mathcal R_{VL}(vl_i)\) :

The routing of virtual link \(vl_i\)

\({\mathcal {M}} = {\mathcal {M}}^{TT} \cup {\mathcal {M}}^{RC} \cup {\mathcal {M}}^{BE}\) :

Set of all the messages in the cluster

\(\mathcal M^{TT}\) :

Set of the TT messages

\(\mathcal M^{RC}\) :

Set of the RC messages

\(\mathcal M^{BE}\) :

Set of the BE messages

\(m_i\) :

A message

\(m_i.rate\) :

The rate of message \(m_i\)

\(m_i.period\) :

The period of message \(m_i\)

\(m_i.deadline\) :

The deadline of message \(m_i\)

\(m_i.size\) :

The size of message \(m_i\)

\(\Phi _m(m_i)\) :

Fragmenting of message \(m_i\) into message fragments

\(\Phi _m^{\circ }\) :

The initial fragmenting of messages into message fragments

\(\mathcal M^+\) :

The set of message fragments, and messages that were not fragmented

\(\mathcal P\) :

The packing of messages

\(\mathcal P^{\circ }\) :

The initial packing of messages

\(\mathcal A_i\) :

An application

\(\tau _j\) :

A task

\(\mathcal F\) :

Set of all the frames in the cluster

\(f_i\) :

A frame

\(f_i.deadline\) :

Deadline for \(f_i\)

\(f_i.offset\) :

Offset, i.e., send time relative to the start of the period of frame \(f_i\)

\(f_{i,x}\) :

\(x^{th}\) instance of frame \(f_i\)

\(f_{i,x}.jitter\) :

Jitter for \(f_{i,x}\)

\(f_{i,x}^{l_j}\) :

The \(x^{th}\) instance of \(f_i\) on dataflow link \(l_j\)

\(pred(f_{i,x}^{l_j})\) :

The set of predecessor frame instances of \(f_{i,x}\) on \(l_j\)

\(succ(f_{i,x}^{l_j})\) :

The set of successor frame instances of \(f_{i,x}\) on \(l_j\)

\(R_{f_i}\) :

Worst-case delay of \(f_i\)

\(\mathcal M_F(f_i)\) :

The assignment of frame to VLs

\(C_j^{[\nu _m, \nu _n]}\) :

Transmission duration of \(f_j\) on dataflow link \([\nu _m, \nu _n]\)

\(B_{1, Tx}\) :

A transmission buffer

\(Q_{1, Tx}\) :

A transmission queue in an ES

\(Q_{Tx}\) :

An outgoing queue in a NS

\(TT_R\) :

Receiver task

\(\mathcal S\) :

Complete set of local schedules

\(\mathcal S^{\circ }\) :

Initial set of local schedules

\(\mathcal S_R\) :

Receive schedule

\(\mathcal S_S\) :

Send schedule

\(T_{cycle}\) :

System cycle

\(BW(vl_i)\) :

The maximum bandwidth required by \(vl_i\)

\(\delta _{TT}\) :

Degree of schedulability for the TT frames

\(\delta _{RC}\) :

Degree of schedulability for the RC frames

\(w_{TT}\) :

Weight for the TT frames, used to compute the cost function

\(w_{RC}\) :

Weight for the RC frames, used to compute the cost function

Best :

The best-so-far solution in the Tabu Search algorithm

Current :

The current solution in the Tabu Search algorithm

Next :

The solution selected as the next solution in the Tabu Search algorithm

\(\mathcal C\) :

Candidate list

L :

Tabu list

maxLSize :

Tabu tenure

tabu(Next):

The tabu of the move that generated the Next solution

\(hr_{TT}^{l_x}\) :

The TT frame with the highest rate on dataflow link \(l_x\)

\(lg_{TT}^{l_x}\) :

The largest TT frame on dataflow link \(l_x\)

\(BW_{Avail}(l_j)\) :

The available bandwidth on dataflow link \(l_j\)

\(BW_{Req}(l_j)\) :

The required bandwidth on dataflow link \(l_j\)

\(BW_{\%}^{BW}\) :

The percentage of BE messages that have their bandwidth requirements met

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Acknowledgments

This work has been funded by the Advanced Research & Technology for Embedded Intelligence and Systems (ARTEMIS) within the project ‘RECOMP’, support code 01IS10001A, agreement No. 100202.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Domiţian Tămaş–Selicean & Paul Pop

  2. TTTech Computertechnik AG, Vienna, Austria

    Wilfried Steiner

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  1. Domiţian Tămaş–Selicean
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Correspondence to Domiţian Tămaş–Selicean.

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Tămaş–Selicean, D., Pop, P. & Steiner, W. Design optimization of TTEthernet-based distributed real-time systems. Real-Time Syst 51, 1–35 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11241-014-9214-8

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