Title: A new measurement technique for communications in IEC 61499 systems

Authors: Jason Scarlett, Robert W. Brennan

Addresses: Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. ' Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

Abstract: Distributed systems are relying more heavily on event-triggered system architectures such as UML and IEC 61499. Existing communication protocols can support the high-level communication within these systems, but there is contention as to which low-level protocol to use, or if any exist that meet the requirements of being event-triggered and hard real-time. This paper presents a new way to measure communication performance. The goal of the new measurement method is to stress the necessity that a system be both efficient and fair. This is illustrated by comparing three communication strategies; Controller Area Network (CAN), Time-Triggered CAN (TTCAN) and Alternating Priority CAN. The first two represent the extremes between event-triggered and time-triggered communication strategies. The third is introduced to illustrate the benefits of the new measurement technique.

Keywords: communication protocols; distributed control; IEC 61499; automation objects; communications; communication performance; performance measurement; communication strategies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2006.012258

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2006 Vol.1 No.4, pp.504 - 518

Published online: 31 Jan 2007 *

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