Development of Ethernet emulation driver for reflective memory

Abstract

Reflective memory (RFM) is adopted as a real time network in the KSTAR plasma control system (PCS). Since the data uploaded from any computer are automatically shared among all the computers on the RFM network, the design of a distributed control system based on RFM is easily implemented through the management of memory mapping. The data providers and consumers are logically well seperated so that, if memory mapping information is given, a new control unit can be added without any modification to the existing system except connecting a new RFM module through an optical cable. The KSTAR PCS is also connected with the Ethernet in addition to the RFM because the RFM does not support the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and many network services of the operating system such as the Network File System (NFS) and the Secure Shell (SSH) are based on the TCP/IP. Therefore we developed an Ethernet emulation driver for the RFM to eliminate the need for a separate Ethernet network. The driver was tested on the Linux kernel 2.6.31. The algorithm of the emulation driver is explained and the experimental setup is presented.