Embedded Networks Design and Simulation
Valentin Olenev, Yuriy Sheynin, Irina Lavrovskaya, Ilya Korobkov, Lev Kurbanov, Nadezhda Chumakova, Nikolay Sinyov
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 42
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1974-5.ch004
Abstract
This chapter presents an approach for the design and simulation of embedded networks for spacecraft. The chapter provides an analysis of existing simulation tools for the on-board and local area networks. The authors overview the main abilities of the existing software and then propose the computer-aided design system for SpaceWire onboard networks design and simulation. This CAD system supports the full on-board network design and simulation flow, which begins from the network topology automated generation and finishes with getting the network structure, configuration and parameters setting, simulation results, and statistics – SpaceWire Automated Network Design and Simulation (SANDS). The authors describe formal theories, algorithms, methods, and approaches, which are used to solve general issues that appear in developing of onboard networks. The chapter covers topics of fault-tolerance in onboard networks, discusses routing problems, and approaches to organize deadlock-free routing. The authors propose schedule creation algorithms for STP ISS protocol and consider network simulation issues.
TopNetwork simulators allow researchers to test the scenarios that are difficult or expensive to imitate in real world. It is particularly useful to test new communication protocols or to change the existing protocols in a controlled and reproducible environment. Simulators can be used to design different network topologies using various types of nodes. There are different types of network simulators and they can be compared based on the following features:
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Range: From very simple to very complex;
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Ability to specify nodes and links between those nodes and the traffic between the nodes;
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Ability to specify everything about protocols used to handle traffic in a network;
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Graphical User Interface: Allows users to easily visualize operation of their simulated environment;
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Text-Based Applications: Permit more advanced forms of customization;
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Programming-Oriented Tools: Providing a programming framework that customizes to create an application that simulates the networking environment to be tested (Siraj, Gupta, & Rinku-Badgujar, 2012).
Some of network simulators are commercial, which means that the source code of the software or the affiliated packages is not provided to users. All users have to pay to get a license to use this software or pay to order specific packages for their own specific usage requirements. On the other hand, open source network simulators and their interfaces are completely open for the developers.
Currently there is a number of tools and models that give an ability to simulate the operation of communication networks, but mostly these tools are intended for the Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks. Most popular network simulators are overviewed in the current chapter.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Modeling: A representation of an object by a model in order to obtain information about the object. This information is usually obtained through experiments with the object’s model.
Fault-Tolerance: Is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of (or one or more faults within) some of its components.
Scheduling: A type of quality of service that makes the network operate in accordance to the single schedule, when each node has (or does not have) a permission to send data during the particular time interval.
Onboard Network: Communication network, that is in order for transferring any kind of a data on a board of spacecraft, aircraft or any other kind of a vehicle.
Embedded Network: A specific combination of computer hardware and software which is specifically designed to perform a particular function (or a range of functions) of a larger system.
Deadlock-Free Routing: Creation of the routing tables for the routers that ensures that there would be no deadlocks during the data transmission in a network.