Towards a design toolset for LAN-based real-time systems

Local area networks are increasingly used as a basis for distributing functionality in real-time industrial systems. A consensus is emerging among system designers that there is a lack of an agreed and trusted methodology for building such real-time LAN systems. The key to across-life-cycle integration of design activities rests with the ability to relate design and requirements specifications. This means that at design time, one needs to show that the system´s components or whole systems requirements are satisfied, especially for real-time systems. Also a model of the design can be helpful in upgrade exercises as well as debugging in case of faults. The authors present a design environment that integrates modelling through analytical and discrete event simulation and a knowledge based system that helps in the design, implementation, and maintenance of distributed systems based on local area networks. They present the background to why such an environment is required and give a comparison with related efforts. This is followed by a description of the system itself. They also describe the lessons learned and difficulties encountered and how far they have gone in implementation as well as future plans