Message delay in distributed control systems through Ethernet

Authors:	Grau Antoni, Technical Univ. of Catalonia, Spain Gamiz-Caro Juan, Technical Univ. of Catalonia, Spain
Topic:	3.3 Computers and Telematics
Session:	Telematics Applications and Networking
Keywords:	communication network, Ethernet, communication control applications, distributed control applications, model control

Abstract

In distributed control system Ethernet is invading communication areas reserved so far to other specific and/or proprietary networks, due to its wide bandwidth, reliability and reduced cost. However this fact obliges to carefully evaluate the delay that messages undergo in order to fulfill with the application temporal requirements. In this paper the delay model is studied, its main components are defined, and, finally, the experimental results and the divergences respect the theoretical values are presented.