Deterministic delay analysis of AVB switched Ethernet networks using an extended Trajectory Approach

Abstract

Audio Video Bridging (AVB) switched Ethernet is being considered as a promising network alternative solution for the automotive industry thanks to its high data transmission rate and dedicated bandwidth for real-time traffic. However, guaranteeing deterministic communications of an AVB switched Ethernet network remains a key issue for safety-critical applications in automotive domain. In order to ensure real-time timeliness constraints for any flow sent in AVB switched Ethernet networks, we establish new bounds on the worst-case end-to-end delay of any flow. Our contributions are the following: (i) We first develop a worst-case delay analysis in the context of AVB switched Ethernet network based on an extension of the Trajectory Approach. (ii) Then we take into account serialization constraints on frame transmissions to improve the computation of worst-case end-to-end delay bounds. (iii) Finally, we refine the proposed approach by taking into consideration the AVB traffic shaping characteristics. The performance of the proposed approach is illustrated on a set of representative automotive examples.