Simulation environment for Time-Triggered Ethernet

Abstract

Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTEthernet) is an SAE standard of a real-time Ethernet extension, which supports real-time requirements, fault isolation and mixed criticality applications. TTEthernet supports different communication mechanisms ranging from best-effort messaging with a high channel utilization to predictable real-time messaging based on a time-triggered communication schedule. This paper presents a simulation framework for TTEthernet-based systems, which supports the analysis and validation of TTEthernet-based applications at early development stages. We introduce generic model building blocks (e.g., TTEthernet switches, TTEthernet end systems, fault injectors), which can be instantiated, configured and extended to model distributed embedded applications. In particular, these building blocks can be configured to support application-specific time-triggered schedules and communication topologies. The fault injector allows to evaluate the reliability in the presence of messages failures with given failure modes and failure rates. We demonstrate the simulation environment in an example scenario with two TTEthernet switches, multiple end systems and injected faults.