November 3, 2009
TTTech, the leading supplier of reliable networking solutions based on time-triggered technology, announces the availability of the TTE-Protocol Layer. This software-based implementation of the TTEthernet protocol enables integration of non-critical and critical data traffic in one network. The TTE-Protocol Layer is suitable for real-time control applications, data acquisition or multimedia applications.
By adding the TTE-Protocol Layer to a communication system using standard Ethernet, the system can be upgraded to a real-time Ethernet network. A key feature of this product is the compatibility of its Application Programming Interface (API) with the API of hardware-based TTEthernet nodes. Thus an easy upgrade from software-based to hardware-based TTEthernet is possible.
In conjunction with the TTE-Development Switch 100 Mbit/s, the TTE-Protocol Layer enables integration of the real-time and non-real-time traffic in the same communication infrastructure. The solution guarantees deterministic transmission latencies and small and bounded jitter for the real-time traffic class.
The TTE-Protocol Layer core, which is responsible for controlling the transmission of the time-triggered messages, forms the heart of the TTE-Protocol Layer. It is hardware- and operating system-independent, and therefore it can be easily ported to any computer that has a standard Ethernet controller and a programmable timer unit.
As a service to the host application, the TTE-Protocol Layer provides start-up, clock synchronization, deterministic message transport, configuration, and error handling. The solution was developed according to the TTEthernet specification. TTEthernet is being standardized under the standardization number AS6802 by SAE International.
