With Ethernet, the communications are not deterministic because of the collision which can occur between several host on a network with a hub, or because of the unknown latency in the case of the switch .
The deterministic communication is not allowed by the Ethernet protocol because of the possibility of collisions which can occurs and supported by the mechanism CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection).
RTnet is a protocol stack which run between the Ethernet layer and the application layer (or IP layer). It aims, through the use of time intervals (time-slots), is to make deterministic communication, by disabling the collision detection CSMA/CD, and prevent buffering packet in the network. RTnet is a software developed to run on Linux kernel with RTAI or Xenomai real-time extension. It exploits the real time kernel extension to ensure the determinism on the communication stack. In this aim, all the instructions related to this protocol makes use real time kernel functions rather than those of Linux, which bound latencies to the execution times and latencies of interruptions which provide deterministic’s communication .
Communication timeshare TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) is at the basis of the determinism of the protocol. The use of time intervals (time slots) allocated to the hosts for sending data can no longer use the mechanism of collision detection (CDMA / CD) and therefore bound the time between transmission and reception of a message. Based on a master-slave operation to synchronize the clocks of each host of the network and allocate time slots to each host, the protocol depends mainly on the master which issues periodically a synchronization message. Wiki: tdma.png? 600
Rtnet uses time division multiplexing TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) to avoid collisions of communication, the master sends at the beginning of each cycle a frame containing the information from the global clock to synchronize. The synchronization frames are sent periodically in the network and contain a cycle number encoded on 4 bytes, the value of the reference time of the master in nanoseconds and the value of the reference time when the transmission was made, this value help to reduce the deviation of the global clock. The synchronization message contains the following data: To remedy the lack of a centralized master-slave, secondary master (backup-master) can be established by booking additional slots for the backup master. If the primary master falls, the secondary master is activated after taking into account the shift from the previous frame synchronization. When the primary master back into service, it is synchronized with the active secondary master,then the secondary master is disabled.
Rtnet protocol stack contains a physical part to the transport layer of the OSI model. It was developed specifically to work on real-time kernels RTAI and Xenomai. To ensure determinism for communication applications, it is necessary that the Ethernet controller application software used all functions meet hard real-time constraints. Consequently, the network layer protocols and transport in particular must be implemented for using the real time kernel of Linux rather than commonly used. Wiki: pile.png
The physical layer, supported by the Ethernet controller, requires the use of a specific driver derived from Linux. Handling memory, interrupt handling mechanisms or masking interrupts require action which need to be done by the real time kernel to ensure determinism. Also take into account in the Ethernet driver the most accurate detection possible instants of emission and reception. From the material point of view, any Ethernet controller can be used and other physical layers could be supported (such as Firewire). The management controller is performed in a non-real time what is the initialization, setup and shutdown, so that special attention should be paid to the functions of transmitting and receiving. At the transmission, save the value of the global clock, while at the reception function, it is necessary to save the value of the global clock at the moment of reception, to allow controlling the jitter precisely.
Ethernet as a standard operation can not provide hard real-time communication, whether on networks based on repeaters or switches for which there is risk of collision. The quality of service provided by the IEEE 802.1q offers a good solution to this problem, but the centralization of the switches is costly wiring. The data link protocol of Rtnet is provided by the kernel module called Rtmac, incorporating a module TDMA. TDMA module manages communication over the network (synchronization, cycle time, etc..) Although this layer is an optional extension of the stack Rtnet, it brings a deterministic media access protocol based on these services:
* Forwarding specific packets to appropriate services.
* Exchange of control messages and data with higher layer protocols.
* Possibility to define a media access control-specific interface in the case of using multiple network interfaces.
* Service tunneling to exchange data with non real-time networks.
Rtmac layer from Rtnet is a module providing the following services:
* Interception of package information specific to redirect them to appropriate services.
* Exchange of control data or specific information in parallel data applications for the upper layers.
* Setting up tunnels to communicate with non-real time systems via
* Use a virtual interface and adding a header to distinguish this flow.
Rtnet uses time division access network in the data link layer, to prevent collisions occur. This protocol synchronizes clocks of nodes in the network segment, using a master-slave communication, and defines the transmission time of data to the synchronization message transmitted periodically. A node can join the network even when it is started, if he knows his time access, manually configured on the node or the server configuration in place on a network node (rtcfg). Once this parameter obtained node will evaluate the time to go back on the network by sending queries to the master sync, which is going to respond by including in the packet sent timing information that can calculate the time of return.
Stacks of UDP / IP and TCP / IP network and transport layers are supported, by simplifying the process of routing and optimization of fragmentation. The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is adapted to operate only during initialization. In the context of communications on a bus, these protocols may be unnecessary, but are relevant for communication with an external network, typically non-real time. The IP protocol is implemented to run on the real time kernel and supports fragmentation to send packets whose size exceeds the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit). To perform routing two tables are used, the first table, the routing table of guests, contains the IP addresses of hosts reachable on the LAN. The second table, optional, use the gateway address to other networks in real time, allowing the establishment of networks with more complex structures. The contents of the routing table is similar to the ARP table of the standard IP stack. For Rtnet this table is used for the routing process, which is not necessarily the case for the standard battery. UDP and TCP are implemented above the IP layer (Version 4), UDP is used for hard real-time transmissions. TCP in turn has recently been implemented in the aim to communicate with elements of the network which does not run Rtnet, TCP is much more complicated (described in more than one hundred RFCs). Therefore its implementation has been greatly simplified since its usefulness is limited. UDP for its part, the default protocol to use to establish a real-time communication between two applications Rtnet. Rtcfg is a protocol defined for Rtnet to configure the network effectively. For that a network node is used as a server and sends to other nodes (clients) configuration information. Thanks to the presence of a virtual interface, it is possible to run all network layer protocols and implemented in the higher standard Linux kernel. It is also possible for the limited communications network node does not use routing protocol and transport (socket type RAW).