Ethernet Protocol Research Articles

Embedded network camera processor system on a chip for various low-power multimedia applications

In this paper we present an embedded network camera processor (NCP) system on a chip (SoC) for various low-power multimedia applications. The NCP SoC comprises a digital camera processor optimized for a CCD sensor, a motion JPEG encoder to compress the data, an Ethernet controller to transmit the data, ARM processor and many peripherals. Using the NCP SoC allows the raw image from a CCD sensor to be filtered, compressed and transmitted anywhere through various Ethernet protocols, with no additional hardware. The NCP SoC is designed with Verilog-HDL. Also, we followed a strict ASIC flow including functional behavior verification and a scan test. The NCP SoC is fabricated with 0.25 $${\upmu }{\text {m}}$$μm CMOS technology. The total chip size, including embedded memory, is $$7800\times 7800\,{\upmu }{\text {m}}^{2}$$7800×7800μm2 and the gate count is 1.2 million. The NCP SoC runs at up to 48 MHz, and supports various slower clock frequencies for low-power applications requiring additional power saving modes: 6 MHs, 12 and 24 MHz at 2.5 V.

Real-Time Ethernet to Software-Defined Sliceable Superchannel Transponder

Optical Ethernet gains great success in varied optical domains. Ethernet while providing the elastic allocation of bandwidth per flow is currently restricted to being transported over fixed-rate fixed-grid optical channels. However, as data transmission and switching in optical networks is becoming more flexible, the current Ethernet to optical interface with fixed functions and fixed design face great challenges for applications in an elastic optical network. In addition, the coexisted Ethernet standards in optical networks also need a converter to transform low-capacity Ethernet signals to high-capacity Ethernet signals. In this paper, we propose a real-time Ethernet to software-defined programmable sliceable transponder based on network function programmable Ethernet to elastic optical networks (ETH-EON) interface, multiformat supported transmitter and architecture-on-demand (AoD)-based superchannel signal processor. The transponder parses the Ethernet traffic and then transports it over a number of optical carriers with the appropriate baud-rate, modulation format and associated spectral bandwidth. Software-defined reconfigurability of both electronic (i.e., FPGA) and optics (AoD) allow for a flexible transponder to offer high Ethernet to optical transport efficiency. Ethernet capacities from 40 Gbit/s to 2.88 Tbit/s can be provided by reconfiguring the modulation formats and the used optical carrier number. The modulation format adaptability also provides a tradeoff between transmission capacity and transmission distance, to optimize network performance. The designed software-defined sliceable elastic transponder aggregate multiple Ethernet traffic flows and send spectral-efficient signals through the elastic optical network with simple Ethernet protocols, avoiding using complex and expensive OTN technologies. Finally, we demonstrate the converter in elastic optical networks for several application scenarios.

Co-spanning tree restoration mechanism for metro Ethernet switched networks

Ethernet, a popular technology in IT industry, with high transmission rate, simple maintenance, and compatibility with different types of links was invented for local and small-scale computer networks. However, current spanning tree-based Ethernet protocols do not meet the requirements for metro Ethernet networks in terms of network resilience. One of the most important weaknesses is slow re-convergence time in the event of a link failure when a new spanning tree must be reconstructed to ensure the survivability of networks. In this paper, we propose a co-spanning tree restoration (CSTR) mechanism for metro Ethernet switched networks to handle the link failures. Upon failure of a link on the network, a distributed failure restoration protocol will be activated to reconstruct the damaged spanning tree using a $$co\text {-}tree$$co-tree link. We explain the details of the protocol, including advertisement tables and fundamental reconfiguration processes. In addition, we propose a simple and effective solution for a double link failure and develop an optional feature to control unnecessary topology changes. The simulated results of CSTR on different network topologies show its features of efficiency and quick recovery.

EPECUR setup for the search for narrow baryon resonances in pion-proton scattering

EPECUR experimental setup is aimed at the search of narrow resonant states by precision measurement of differential and total reaction cross sections of pion-nucleon interaction with 1 MeV pion energy steps. In five years passed from the idea of the experiment till the start of the data taking in April of 2009, a new apparatus was build from scratch at the universal beam line 322 of ITEP proton synchrotron U-10. The setup is essentially a non-magnetic spectrometer with a liquid hydrogen target based on the large aperture drift chambers with hexagonal structure. The unique properties of the beam line allow individual pion momentum measurement with the accuracy better than 0.1%. The momentum tagging is done with 1 mm pitch proportional chambers located in the first focus of the beam line. The design of numerous subsystems of the setup is based on modern electronic components including microprocessors and FPGA. All the subsystems are tuned and tested both individually and as parts of the whole working setup. The distributed data acquisition system uses widely spread USB and Ethernet protocols, which allows to achieve high performance and take full advantage of the industrial solutions.

Dynamic quality of service model for improving performance of multimedia real-time transmission in industrial networks.

Nowadays, quality of service (QoS) is very popular in various research areas like distributed systems, multimedia real-time applications and networking. The requirements of these systems are to satisfy reliability, uptime, security constraints and throughput as well as application specific requirements. The real-time multimedia applications are commonly distributed over the network and meet various time constraints across networks without creating any intervention over control flows. In particular, video compressors make variable bit-rate streams that mismatch the constant-bit-rate channels typically provided by classical real-time protocols, severely reducing the efficiency of network utilization. Thus, it is necessary to enlarge the communication bandwidth to transfer the compressed multimedia streams using Flexible Time Triggered- Enhanced Switched Ethernet (FTT-ESE) protocol. FTT-ESE provides automation to calculate the compression level and change the bandwidth of the stream. This paper focuses on low-latency multimedia transmission over Ethernet with dynamic quality-of-service (QoS) management. This proposed framework deals with a dynamic QoS for multimedia transmission over Ethernet with FTT-ESE protocol. This paper also presents distinct QoS metrics based both on the image quality and network features. Some experiments with recorded and live video streams show the advantages of the proposed framework. To validate the solution we have designed and implemented a simulator based on the Matlab/Simulink, which is a tool to evaluate different network architecture using Simulink blocks.

FPGA-based 10-Gbit Ethernet Data Acquisition Interface for the Upgraded Electronics of the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeters

A stepwise upgrade of the LHC is foreseen starting now until the year 2023 to increase the instantaneous luminosity up to five times of its design value. It implies a challenge for the ATLAS experiment coping with the expected event pile-up, especially for the Level-1 calorimeter trigger system. In order to keep the trigger rates within the limited bandwidth new algorithms have to be applied which in turn requires an upgrade of the ATLAS Liquid Argon calorimeter trigger readout electronics. Towards this upgrade, the ATLAS Liquid Argon calorimeter group develops a high-speed data acquisition interface in ATCA standard using commercial hardware instead of complex and expensive in-house developments where possible. This paper gives an overview of the general concepts of the DAQ interface, the engaged technologies and the current status of the development efforts for an FPGA based fast data link with a standard 10 Gbps Ethernet protocol which may also be useful for DAQ systems of other high energy physics experiments.

The Electric Field Sensor Calibration System Based on Virtual Instrument

Virtual Instrument as the fifth-generation instrument has been a new technology with its unique advantages and got applying and developing more and more widely. From the view of composition and characteristics of the virtual instrument, the paper expounds the designing and developing process of electric field sensor calibration system based on the Ethernet and GPIB communication protocols. The table of the electric field sensor calibration system developed in the paper with a friendly interface improves the work efficiency of the electric field sensor calibration greatly, and the method and process of developing the electric field sensor calibration system could be a reference for the development of other relevant virtual instruments.

Analysis and Design of E1 over Ethernet Gateway

The most commonly used technique in networking nowadays is packet switching. It has become one of the important infrastructure elements in the communication society. Time-division multiplexing (TDM) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) over Ethernet is regarded as an economical and efficient scheme in the mid-distance of TDM or (SDH) interconnections. This paper focus on the design and analysis of the E1 to Ethernet protocol converter (Gateway), it based on the frame granularity scheme which takes into account of miniaturization, power, cost and time delay of companding reduction. The E1 to new Ethernet (LAN) link protocol converter designed in this paper utilizes universal programmable devices. A new approach is proposed, modeled and then simulated by using (VHDL) code and implemented in Spartan 3E kit. In high speed networks, packet processing is relatively expensive while bandwidth is cheap. The proposed approach considers the most important factor affecting the performance of high speed networks. These are packet processing time, throughput, and packet efficiency. Packet processing time is an issue in real time communications. As consequences, real time signal quality (like the voice) might be degraded severely when the process time exceed its limits. In this paper, the simulation results show that the active mode of the frame payload effectively improves the performance of the Ethernet protocol. In E1 line, 36% bandwidth is saved at half traffic load of the maximum.

The Design of High-Speed Synchronization Data Collection Node Machine for Multi-Chip CCD Measurement

The high-speed synchronous node machine is developed for collecting high-precision and synchronous data from multi-chip CCD to measure the dynamic object with large field coverage by Visual technology. Node machine contains core, A/D converter module and Ethernet communication module. The FPGA of 600,000 gates which have a built-in FLASH chip is used as the core, which provides work-frequency of 10MHz and drive pulse for multi-chip CCD. A/D converter module configures the differential amplifier and builds 3-way 30MHz 16-bit A / D converter. 10/100M Ethernet protocol stack controller and RJ45 interface are internally installed in Ethernet module. This module also uses CC2430 chip to perform fast wireless synchronization control. Paper emphasizes how to implement the key technologies of multi-chip CCD for synchronous and precision measurement, and test the node machine by 5-chip CCD image data synchronous collecting with large field of vision. The node machine runs smoothly and reliably .The performance results of test show that the speed of image data collecting reaches up to 1800 frames/s, the speed of data processing reaches up to 150M Bytes/s and the transporting speed reaches up to 50M Bytes/s. The time of synchronous control is within 2 us.

Multi-Gb/s Fiberoptic Physical Layer for Spacecraft Interconnects

We report on the development of a fiberoptic physical layer bus with RapidIO-protocol for spacecraft avionics interconnects. To emulate spacecraft instrument data transmission, dynamic routing of real-time live camera data packets is demonstrated through a switch-based network. For real-time instrument data input/output, an interface bridge between Ethernet protocol and RapidIO protocol is developed. RapidIO-based fiberoptic avionic system is compared with 1393 ring protocol based interconnect in terms of performance, flexibility, mass/power/size, and suitability for different mission applications. Fault tolerant architectures for RapidIO and 1393 ring-protocol-based spacecraft buses are also presented.

A Loss-Free Multipathing Solution for Data Center Network Using Software-Defined Networking Approach

Conventional Ethernet protocols struggle to meet the scalability and performance requirements of data centers. Viable replacements have been proposed for Data Center Ethernet (DCE): link-layer multipathing (MP) is deployed to replace Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and thus improves network throughput; end-to-end link-layer congestion control (CC) is proposed to better guarantee loss-free frame delivery for Ethernet. However, little work has been done to incorporate MP and CC to offer a more comprehensive solution for DCE. In this paper, we propose a two-tier solution by integrating our Dynamic Load Balancing MultiPath (DLBMP) scheme with CC. Instead of using two separate parameters, i.e. path load and buffer level, to trigger MP and CC, our solution only needs to monitor path load metric to manage MP and CC in an integrated way. Different from a pure CC mechanism, which generates notifications from network core, our integrated CC can make use of link load information in edge switches which directly inform sources to control traffic admission. To minimize overhead and accelerate update, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) techniques are employed in our implementation, which decouples routing intelligence from data transmission. Hence, data sources can react more rapidly to congestions and network can be guaranteed with loss-free delivery. In addition, our MP scheme is further improved by introducing application-layer flow differentiation. With such a fine flow differentiation (FFD) mechanism, traffic can be more evenly distributed along multipaths, resulting in better bandwidth utilization. Simulation results show that our combined solution can further improve network throughput with FFD mechanism and guarantee loss-free delivery with integrated CC.

The RF Amplifier Remote Monitoring System Based on Gigabit Ethernet

Based on the Gigabit Ethernet Protocol, the RF (Radio Frequency) power amplifier remote monitoring system was designed. The system collect digital signal from predistortion module, transmit the gigabit Ethernet network to outside, and improve the system efficiency. It adopts the SOPC technology hardcore and softcore, which makes the whole system realized in the single piece of chip. Softcore is the Alteras IP core--Nios II processor, design processors, make use of the custom parts and programs gigabit Ethernet transceiver and internal driving in processor. The integration and reliability of the system are in great improvement. Through testing, system function can satisfy transmission requirements of normal transceiver RF power amplifier state information and control information.

Design and application of a real-time industrial Ethernet protocol under Linux using RTAI

Nowadays, Ethernet networks have been extended down into the field of automation control from the upper planning and scheduling level, which caused the generation of a new form of communication using real-time industrial Ethernet fieldbus. This paper presents a feasible Ethernet-based real-time feildbus scenario for industrial automation control systems. It endeavours to gain high performance in general synchronisation real-time control systems with common hardware and software resources. For this purpose, a master-slave pattern is adopted in constructing the communication protocol. The slave nodes are developed based on universal FPGA and ARM chips, and the first slave node is in charge of precise cyclic timing and synchronisation among all slave nodes with time resolution of 20 nanoseconds. The master protocol stack is developed under Linux using Real Time Application Interface (RTAI), which not only provides application interface for user programs but also is responsible for exchanging process data with slave nodes in real time. A case study of merging this fieldbus into EMC2 to control a three-axis milling machine is also discussed and implemented. The experiment results show that this industrial Ethernet fieldbus platform completely meets the demand of open industrial automation control application.

FMT 변조 기반의 해상 초단파 데이터 시스템의 구현 알고리즘 및 성능분석

본 논문은 해상 초단파 대역에서 데이터 통신이 가능한 FMT(Filtered Multi-Tone) 변조 기반의 디지털 무선전송기술을 소개하고 선박국의 송신기 특성을 기준으로 시뮬레이션 성능과 시스템 시험 결과를 비교 분석하였다. 본 연구에서 CSTDMA(Carrier Sensing Time Division Multiple Access) 방식을 적용하기 위한 프레임 구조와 프로토콜을 도출하였고, ITU-R M.1842-1에 제안된 변조 기술, 스펙트럼 마스크와 지연시간 등의 시스템 특성을 만족하도록 기저대역 모뎀과 RF 송수신단을 구현하였다. 이와 같이 본 시스템은 해상이동서비스용 초단파 대역에서 50kHz-100kHz의 광대역 채널과 디지털 무선전송기술을 도입함으로써 데이터 전송속도를 최대 307.2kbps까지 증가시킬 수 있으며 e-Navigation을 위한 데이터 통신뿐만 아니라 선상에서 로컬 WLAN(Wireless Local Area Network)과 연결하여 다른 데이터 서비스도 쉽게 제공할 수 있다. This paper proposes FMT(Filtered Multi-Tone)-based digital radio implementation algorithms and the results obtained by various field tests especially in terms of transmitter characteristics. In this study, we predefined frame structure and protocols used for the CSTDMA(Carrier Sensing Time Division Multiple Access) scheme, designed digital filters and RF front end to fulfill the system characteristics such as the spectral mask and processing delays given by the Recommendation ITU-R M.1842-1. The proposed system supports exchange of data for e-Navigation with the usage of wider channel of 50-100kHz bandwidth, Turbo coding and FMT modulation. Furthermore, the common Ethernet protocol makes connection to local WLAN(Wireless Local Area Network) on board the ship for other data services.

A Simple Switched Ethernet Protocol for Hard Real-Time Communication

This paper presents a simple and efficient switched Ethernet communication protocol for industrial hard real-time LAN applications. The network is set up with end nodes and a switch, in small-size industrial network covering such as factory automation, distributed control systems and embedded systems. Compared to some conventional hard real-time network protocols by performing some experiments, the proposed protocol has better real-time performances and meets the requirements of reliability for hard real-time system applications.

A Dynamic Management Information System Based on ZigBee Technology for Instruments and Equipments of Experimental Centre

Based on ASP.NET 2.0 framework and ZigBee wireless sensor network, a dynamic management information system for instruments and equipments of experimental centre was designed and developed. Electronic labels were equipped to the object instruments and equipments, and the information was obtained by using ZigBee and Ethernet protocol. The platform of dynamic management was constructed through collecting real-time information of the instruments and equipments in a timely manner. At the university level, the system is coordinated with specified framework of instruments and equipments under the management of State-Owned Assets Department to accept the supervision and inspection by higher level departments. At the college level, it is subdivided to instrument and equipment status (e.g., acquisition/scrap, lent out/returned, running state/using rate, etc.) to realize fast and convenient inquiry about their current inventory status, and their utilization efficiency in the experimental centre is increased to serve students and faculties better.

Application of Ethernet Powerlink for Communication in a Linux RTAI Open CNC system

In computerized numerical control (CNC) systems, the communication bus between the controller and axis servo drives must offer high bandwidth, noise immunity, and time determinism. More and more CNC systems use real-time Ethernet protocols such as Ethernet Powerlink (EPL). Many modern controllers are closed costly hardware-based solutions. In this paper, the implementation of EPL communication bus in a PC-based CNC system is presented. The CNC system includes a PC, a software CNC controller running under Linux Real-Time Application Interface real-time operating system and servo drives communicating via EPL. The EPL stack was implemented as a real-time kernel module. Due to software-only implementation, this system is a cost-effective solution for a broad range of applications in machine control. All software systems are based on GNU General Public License or Berkeley Software Distribution licenses. Necessary modifications to the EPL stack, Linux configurations, computer basic input/output system, and motherboard configurations were presented. Experimental results of EPL communication cycle jitter on three different PCs were presented. The results confirm good performance of the presented system.

Zynq를 이용한 비전 및 모션 컨트롤러 통합모듈 구현

최근 자동화 시스템에 있어 중요한 요소인 비전과 모션 컨트롤러를 통합한 솔루션이 많이 개발되고 있다. 다만 이러한 솔루션은 비전 처리와 모션 컨트롤을 네트워크로 통합하거나 하나의 모듈에 투 칩 솔루션으로 구성된 경우가 많다. 본 연구에서는 최근에 개발된 확장형 프로세싱 플랫폼인 Zynq-7000을 이용한 비전 및 모션 제어기를 통합한 원 칩 솔루션을 구현하였다. 또한 모션 컨트롤은 제어의 실시간이 보장되면서 대량의 데이터를 처리할 수 있는 개방형 표준 이더넷 호환성을 가지고 있는 산업용 이더넷 프로토콜인 EtherCAT을 적용하였다. Recently the solution integrated of vision and motion controller which are important element in automatiomn system has been many developed. However typically such a solutions has a many case that integrated vision processing and motion control into network or organized two chip solution on one module. We implement one chip solution integrated into vision and motion controller using Zynq-7000 that is developed recently as extended processing platform. We also apply EtherCAT to motion control that is industrial Ethernet protocol which have compatibility for open standardization Ethernet in order to control of motion because EtherCAT has a secure to realtime control and can treat massive data.

Mathematical analysis of burst transmission scheme for IEEE 802.3az energy efficient Ethernet

The IEEE P802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) protocol specifies a Low Power Idle (LPI) mode in which Ethernet device can save energy by turning off components when its queue is empty, and defines a scheme for coordinating the transitions between the LPI and active modes. Depending on when Ethernet devices enter and exit the LPI mode, two schemes have been proposed: the frame transmission scheme and the burst transmission scheme. P. Reviriego et al. proposed the burst transmission scheme (the same as the packet coalescing scheme by Christensen et al.) where the link becomes active when either a fixed number of packets have arrived or a fixed time is passed from the epoch that the first packet has arrived. They showed by simulation that the burst transmission scheme has significantly lower energy consumption than the frame transmission scheme of EEE. In this paper, we provide an analytic model of the burst transmission scheme and obtain its energy consumption and packet delay. Our analytic results match the simulation results. In numerical results, we find the maximal timer which minimizes the energy consumption while satisfying the maximal packet delay within a pre-determined level.

Survey on converged data center networks with DCB and FCoE: standards and protocols

Data center networks today face exciting new challenges in supporting cloud computing and other data-intensive applications. In conventional DCNs, different types of traffic are carried by different types of networks, such as Ethernet and Fibre Channel. Typically, Ethernet carries data traffic among servers in LANs, and Fibre Channel connects servers and storages in storage area networks. Due to the existence of multiple networks, the network cost, power consumption, wiring complexity, and management overhead are often high. The concept of a converged DCN is therefore appealing, carrying both types of traffic in a single converged Ethernet. Recent standards have been proposed for unified data center bridging (DCB) Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocols by the DCB Task Group of IEEE and the T11 Technical Committee of INCITS. In this article, we give a survey of the standards and protocols on converged DCNs, focusing mainly on their motivations and key functionalities. The technologies are discussed mainly from a practical perspective and may serve as a foundation for future research in this area.