Implementation of schedule management mechanism for S-TDMA switch

Recently, because of the development of industrial systems and network systems, the demands of telehaptics and telesurgery become higher. To realize these systems, a real-time communication which can guarantee deterministic delays and low jitters in a network is required. One of the real-time protocol is Synchronous-Time Division Multiple Access (S-TDMA). S-TDMA makes it possible to coexist of real-time and conventional TCP/IP communications over a multiple-hop network using Ethernet. In previous works, the schedule of real-time combinations was fixed. So this research introduces management mechanism of communication schedules by using the technology of Software Defined Networking (SDN). SDN is a notion to realize a dynamic and centralized control of network configuration by using one controller which can manage all equipments in the network. In this paper, the design and implementation of management mechanism of S-TDMA switches are discussed and performance of the implemented switches is verified. The experiment results confirm that it is possible to change time slot allocation, communication mode and paths dynamically. Results also show that the management system can control multiple switches in the network.