Real-time communication for IEC 61499 in switched Ethernet networks

With the nowadays rapidly increasing complexity and distribution of automation and control systems the communication has an increasing impact on the control and measurement tasks. There are several approaches to ensure real-time communication in distributed systems. However these are typically based on complex hardware or middleware concepts. This paper will show an approach for real time communication in switched Ethernet networks for closed automation systems without the need for complex concepts. As basis for this approach will serve the fact that at closed systems the whole communication is described within the application. Furthermore, this paper shows a way to improve the communication efficiency by collating messages and analyses the communication delay for switched Ethernet in different network setups.