Asynchronous Deterministic Network Based on the DiffServ Architecture

In this study, we propose a scalable framework that guarantees both latency and jitter bounds in large networks, including the Internet. The framework is composed of two parts: a latency-guaranteeing network and a jitter-guaranteeing end system. For latency bounds, we suggest regulators per class per input–output port pair of the DiffServ-type relay nodes. For jitter bounds, based on the guaranteed latency bounds, we suggest time-stamping and buffers at the network egress edge. The framework does not require network-wide time synchronization, frequency synchronization, flow state maintenance, or flow-level queuing/scheduling. Therefore, the complexity does not increase as the number of flows or network size increases. Moreover, the framework is based on the DiffServ architecture; therefore, it requires minimal modification to the current Internet. We demonstrate that the proposed regulators can achieve latency bounds comparable to the IEEE asynchronous traffic shaping technique. We prove that the jitter is bounded even with realistic limitations such as buffers without cut-through capability. We also prove that in the presence of clock drift, the jitter can still be upper bounded with a suggested compensation algorithm. We demonstrate through experiments on simple programmable microcontrollers that the jitter upper bound can be within a few tens of microseconds, even in a realistic situation with store-and-forward buffers, clock drift, and random network delays.