<p>Server-based architectures have recently generated more interests and are currently considered for usage for communication in networks. In parallel, switched Ethernet technology has been widely adopted and used in lots of networked systems. Current requirements of networks for supporting real-time guarantees while being flexible at the same time have made the network designers to consider addition of some features to common switches. The FTT-Enabled Ethernet switch is a switch that has been developed to support the FTT (Flexible Time Triggered) paradigm. Recently, servers have been added in these types of switches in order to efficiently manage their allocated bandwidth to different types of messages.</p><p>A hierarchical network of Ethernet switches might be designed in different ways according to the overall goals and properties of the network. In this thesis, after a study on different design solutions, an architecture has been proposed based on FTT-enabled switches, motivated by their support of real-time constraints and server-based communication features. After having created the architecture, a protocol for bandwidth reservation for this hierarchically composed Ethernet switch architecture is developed. Behavior of the designed protocol is described in detail and it has been modeled using Uppaal. Moreover, the temporal behavior (timing) of the network is presented.</p>

Server-based architectures have recently generated more interests and are currently considered for usage for communication in networks. In parallel, switched Ethernet technology has been widely adopted and used in lots of networked systems. Current requirements of networks for supporting real-time guarantees while being flexible at the same time have made the network designers to consider addition of some features to common switches. The FTT-Enabled Ethernet switch is a switch that has been developed to support the FTT (Flexible Time Triggered) paradigm. Recently, servers have been added in these types of switches in order to efficiently manage their allocated bandwidth to different types of messages. A hierarchical network of Ethernet switches might be designed in different ways according to the overall goals and properties of the network. In this thesis, after a study on different design solutions, an architecture has been proposed based on FTT-enabled switches, motivated by their support of real-time constraints and server-based communication features. After having created the architecture, a protocol for bandwidth reservation for this hierarchically composed Ethernet switch architecture is developed. Behavior of the designed protocol is described in detail and it has been modeled using Uppaal. Moreover, the temporal behavior (timing) of the network is presented.

<p>Many products are built from more or less independently developed subsystems. For instance, a car consists of subsystems for transmission, braking, suspension, etc. These subsystems are frequently controlled by an embedded computer system. In the automotive industry, as well as in other application domains, there is currently a trend from an approach where subsystems have dedicated computer hardware and other resources (a federated approach) to an approach where subsystems share hardware and other resources (an integrated approach). This is motivated by a strong pressure to reduce product cost, at the same time as an increasing number of subsystems are being introduced.</p><p>When integrating subsystems, it is desirable that guarantees valid before integration are also valid after integration, since this would eliminate the need for costly reverifications. The computer network is a resource that is typically shared among all subsystems. Hence, a central issue when integrating subsystems is to provide an efficient scheduling of message transmissions on the network. There are essentially three families of schedulers that can be used: priority-driven schedulers that assign priorities to messages, time-driven schedulers that assign specific time-slots for transmission of specific messages, and share-driven schedulers that assign shares of the available network capacity to groups of messages.</p><p>This thesis presents a framework for share-driven scheduling, to be implemented and used in embedded networks, with the aim to facilitate subsystem integration by reducing the risk of interference between subsystems. The framework is applied in the automotive domain.</p><p>The initial parts of the thesis give an overview of systems, subsystems and network technologies found and used in the automotive domain. Then, the share-driven scheduling framework is presented, analytically investigated and proven, as well as evaluated in a simulation study. Finally it is shown how the framework is to be configured and used in the context of subsystem integration. The results show that the framework allows for flexible and efficient scheduling of messages with real-time constraints, facilitating integration of subsystems from a network point of view.</p>

Many products are built from more or less independently developed subsystems. For instance, a car consists of subsystems for transmission, braking, suspension, etc. These subsystems are frequently controlled by an embedded computer system. In the automotive industry, as well as in other application domains, there is currently a trend from an approach where subsystems have dedicated computer hardware and other resources (a federated approach) to an approach where subsystems share hardware and other resources (an integrated approach). This is motivated by a strong pressure to reduce product cost, at the same time as an increasing number of subsystems are being introduced. When integrating subsystems, it is desirable that guarantees valid before integration are also valid after integration, since this would eliminate the need for costly reverifications. The computer network is a resource that is typically shared among all subsystems. Hence, a central issue when integrating subsystems is to provide an efficient scheduling of message transmissions on the network. There are essentially three families of schedulers that can be used: priority-driven schedulers that assign priorities to messages, time-driven schedulers that assign specific time-slots for transmission of specific messages, and share-driven schedulers that assign shares of the available network capacity to groups of messages. This thesis presents a framework for share-driven scheduling, to be implemented and used in embedded networks, with the aim to facilitate subsystem integration by reducing the risk of interference between subsystems. The framework is applied in the automotive domain. The initial parts of the thesis give an overview of systems, subsystems and network technologies found and used in the automotive domain. Then, the share-driven scheduling framework is presented, analytically investigated and proven, as well as evaluated in a simulation study. Finally it is shown how the framework is to be configured and used in the context of subsystem integration. The results show that the framework allows for flexible and efficient scheduling of messages with real-time constraints, facilitating integration of subsystems from a network point of view.