Benchmarking Networked Control Systems

Abstract

Smartification of devices and ever-increasing connectivity are major factors paving the way towards the creation of networked control systems (NCS). Traditionally, both domains involved in an NCS, network and control, are considered separately. Towards a novel methodology for benchmarking such systems, we propose a series of key performance indicators (KPIs) that are based on well-established foundations of both worlds. These KPIs form our framework for the development of an NCS benchmark. The majority of KPIs, particularly those from the network domain, are applicable to any type of NCS. We are currently implementing an evaluation platform based on Lego Mindstorms to demonstrate and apply our framework. Both the benchmarking framework and our platform are designed with high affordability and easy reproducibility in mind. We plan to release our source code and construction manuals to motivate others to recreate our benchmark.