Fault-Tolerant High-Rate Ethernet-Based Networked Control System

Networked Control Systems have been applied frequently in many industrial systems. This paper studies the possibility of utilizing Ethernet networks in a state-of-the-art production line with high-sampling-rate machines while meeting the critical deadlines of the system. Furthermore, Fault Tolerance techniques are proposed to handle potential critical failures in the system and prolong the lifetime of the whole system. The reliability of the production line is modeled taking into account different types of failures and their corresponding repair times in developing countries. A case study is illustrated to calculate the increase in system reliability due to the introduction of fault tolerance.