Time-Window Scheduling for Time-Critical Control Data Transmission
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation systems face challenges in efficiently utilizing available resources and adapting to individual demands of control applications due to interruptions in communication connections, particularly with high-frequency short messages, which can lead to production downtime and inefficient data transmission.
Innovation Solution
A communication device and method that transmit selected datagrams within predefined periodic time intervals, synchronizing these intervals across network nodes and using quality of service parameters to reserve resources, allowing for efficient distribution of time windows for cyclic data traffic, ensuring sufficient resources are available for data transmission while adhering to specified quality of service parameters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If bandwidth reservation and credit-based shapers are used to ensure quality of service for data streams, then reliability of data transmission is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to enforced transfer pauses that prevent efficient transmission of control data bursts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the communication network into two distinct networks: a first communication network dedicated to time-critical control data with high transmission priority, and a second communication network for data streams with quality of service requirements. This segmentation allows control data to be transmitted without the transfer pauses imposed by credit-based shapers in the second network, thereby maintaining both reliability for control functions and productivity for data transmission.
2Adaptability or versatility
If message traffic contains many short messages for control data, then adaptability to control applications is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to interruptions in communication connections and intensified problems with transmission failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates control data transmission from data stream transmission by creating two distinct communication networks. The first network is dedicated exclusively to time-critical control data, isolating it from the message traffic and transmission interruptions that occur in the second network. This allows the system to maintain high adaptability for various control applications while ensuring reliable communication connections.
3Reliability
If resources are reserved for data streams with quality of service demands, then reliability of data stream transmission is improved, but adaptability deteriorates because resources are not efficiently utilized for time-critical control data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides available communication resources into two separate networks: the first network dedicated to time-critical control data and the second network for data streams with quality of service requirements. This segmentation ensures that resources reserved in the second network do not constrain the first network's ability to handle diverse control applications, thereby maintaining both reliability for data streams and adaptability for control data transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
A communication device and method for operating a communication system for transmitting time-critical data, wherein a respective individual time window within predefined time intervals is specified for data flows assigned to selected control applications running on terminals, where time windows each have an individual cycle time that is a multiple of a general cycle time or corresponds to the general cycle time, first and second communication devices each check, for the selected control applications, whether a specified time window is available for data transmission, where information about a beginning of the time window within the predefined time intervals is in each case transmitted to the terminal upon which the respective selected control application is executing in the event of an available time window, and where data flows that are assigned to selected control applications are each transmitted according to the information about the beginning of the individual time window.