Guaranteed Real-Time Communication in Packet-Switched Networks with FCFS Queuing

Journal article, 2009

In this paper, we propose a feasibility analysis of periodic hard real-time traffic in packet-switched networks using first come first served (FCFS) queuing but no traffic shapers. Our work constitutes a framework that can be adopted for real-time analysis of switched low-cost networks like Ethernet without modification of the standard network components. Our analysis is based on a flexible network and traffic model, e.g., variable-sized frames, arbitrary deadlines and multiple switches. The correctness of our real-time analysis and the tightness of it for network components in single-switch networks are given by theoretical proofs. The performance of the end-to-end real-time analysis is evaluated by simulations. Moreover, our conceptual and experimental comparison studies between our analysis and the commonly used Network Calculus (NC) shows that our analysis can achieve better performance than NC in many cases.