August 11, 2009
TTTech, the leading supplier of dependable networking solutions based on time-triggered technology, has developed TTEthernet switches for hard real-time data communication. The key benefit of these switches is the additional support for the TTEthernet protocol. In order to define and develop a TTEthernet system different switches are available: The TTEDevelopment Switch available with 100 Mbit/s ports or 1 Gbit/s ports and the TTEMonitoring Switch for monitoring of data streams.
TTEthernet technology enables hard real-time operation in distributed systems based on Ethernet networks. Unlike other real-time Ethernet variants, TTEthernet offers full scalability for real-time architectures based on standard IEEE 802.3 Ethernet, from low-cost low-integrity to highly fault-tolerant ultra-criticality systems.
TTEthernet switches take care of partitioning among time-triggered, rate-constrained, and best-effort Ethernet traffic. High-priority time-triggered messages are routed through the switch according to a predefined schedule with pre-definable constant latency and jitter in the sub-microsecond range. Rate-constrained messages are passed on according to the respective guaranteed bandwidth reservations. Finally, best-effort Ethernet messages are forwarded when bandwidth is available.
The TTEDevelopment Switch 100 Mbit/s has 8 ports and is based on an Altera Cyclone III FPGA, offering maximum flexibility for customer-specific extensions. By using the software tool TTELoad, the configuration data of the switch can be updated via the network. The configuration data will be stored in non-volatile memory and will become effective at the next power-up or reset.
The TTEDevelopment Switch 1 Gbit/s provides four SFP slots where each supports a bandwidth of 1 Gbit/s. Each slot can be equipped with an SFP module using copper or fiber as transmission medium. The switch is based on an Altera Stratix II GX FPGA board.
The TTEMonitoring Switch offers the same features as the TTEDevelopment Switch 1 Gbit/s. In addition, it contains four 1 Gbit/s monitoring ports that allow monitoring the traffic of a TTEthernet network. The switch provides an easy-to-use debugging solution, speeding up rapid-prototyping processes and enabling convenient debugging of TTEthernet networks.
