Time-triggered communication

This volume lays out the foundations of time-triggered communication, focusing on its core ideas, characteristic properties and underlying algorithms. Several specialists contribute chapters that explain how the various time-triggered protocols relate to one another, showing where they diverge and where they share common ground.

The protocols examined include TTP, FlexRay, TTEthernet, SAFEbus, TTCAN and LIN. Their scope runs from inexpensive fieldbus networks built for low-cost hardware up to highly dependable networks designed for safety-critical use. Practical applications also receive attention: FlexRay in automobiles, TTP in railway and avionics systems, and TTEthernet in aerospace.

Embedded computers make up the largest share of computing devices in use today, with ninety-eight percent of them built into equipment such as vehicles, industrial automation, telecommunications gear, consumer electronics and health and medical systems. Because these uses place widely varying and often conflicting demands on a system, no single model suits every embedded design. Common tensions include predictability against flexibility, and resource adequacy against best-effort approaches, so the right system model depends largely on the needs of the application.