Optimizing Network Calculus for Switched Ethernet Network with Deficit Round Robin

Abstract

Avionics Full Duplex switched Ethernet (AFDX) is the de facto standard for the transmission of critical avionics flows. It is a specific switched Ethernet solution based on First-in First-out (FIFO) scheduling. Worst-case traversal time (WCTT) analysis is mandatory for such flows, since timing constraints have to be guaranteed. A classical approach in this context is Network Calculus (NC). However, NC introduces some pessimism in the WCTT computation. Moreover, the worst-case often corresponds to very rare scenarios. Thus, the network architecture is most of the time lightly loaded. Typically, less than 10 % of the available bandwidth is used for the transmission of avionics lows on an AFDX network embedded in an aircraft. One solution to improve the utilization of the network is to introduce Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms. Deficit Round Robin (DRR) is such a mechanism and it is envisioned for future avionics networks. A WCTT analysis has been proposed for DRR. It is based on NC. It doesn't make any assumption on the scheduling of flows by end systems. The first contribution of this paper is to identify sources of pessimism of this approach and to propose an improved solution which removes part of this pessimism. The second contribution is to show how the scheduling of flows can be integrated in this optimized DRR approach, thanks to offsets. An evaluation on a realistic case study shows that both contributions bring significantly tighter bounds on worst-case latencies.