Knowledge-based support for distributed real-time systems design

Network based (or distributed) systems are hard to design and understand, and correcting a design mistake will be very costly. These systems are further complicated by their real-time needs. The investigation is based on Fieldbus type networks which provide industrial local network communications via a bus which will interconnect to low cost devices such as transducers and controllers. Most applications running over Fieldbus will be either in manufacturing or in process control. These types of application require guaranteed responses within strict time deadlines. The key to across-life-cycle integration of design activities rests with the ability to relate design and requirements specifications. The paper presents a local area network designer (LAND), a distributed real-time system design environment that integrates several design tools, such as a knowledge-based system and modeller that are needed throughout such a system´s design life cycle