Self-configuring deterministic network with in-band configuration channel

Abstract

More and more systems in industrial set-ups rely on real-time communication networks. One of the tasks when deploying such real-time networks is the need to configure all parts of it, which gets more complex the larger the network gets. While Software Defined Networking tries to simplify configuration through standardized interfaces, its configuration is mostly done through an out-of-band network. We present a way to achieve bounded configuration times, by introducing a safe in-band channel that enforces traffic characteristics on the in-band control message while getting rid of the out-of-band connection. A model on how to configure the traffic enforcement depending on available network capacity and configuration time constraints is given and evaluated using a proof-of-concept implementation in Mininet.