A novel Shared-Clock scheduling protocol for fault-confinement in CAN-based distributed systems

The Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol is widely employed in the development of distributed embedded systems. Building on the CAN protocol, previous studies have illustrated how “Shared-Clock” (S-C) algorithms can be used in conjunction with off-the-shelf microcontrollers to create high-reliability distributed systems at low cost. In such studies, it has generally been assumed that S-C designs will be based on a bus topology: in the present paper, a novel S-C algorithm is introduced which is intended for use with “star” networks. Through a fault-injection case study and quantitative comparisons, it is demonstrated that the star-based design has a number of advantages when compared with a bus-based equivalent.