Time-Triggered Fieldbus Networks State of the Art and Future Applications

The time-triggered paradigm encompasses a set of concepts and principles that support the design of dependable real-time systems. By using the properties of physical time and the mechanism of clock synchronization, coordinated interaction between distributed nodes can be facilitated. This paper briefly explains the time-triggered approach, defines a taxonomy for real-time requirements and discusses seven protocols that provide time-triggered features. Finally, two application examples are given that show the potential of the time-triggered approach.