Impact of Anomalies within TTEthernet Network on Synchronization Protocol: Analysis Using OMNeT++ Simulations

The crucial mechanism for deterministic networks like TTEthernet is synchronization. Proper network startup ensures correct synchronization and consequently accurate functioning of the entire network. Since the TTEthernet is a fault-tolerant system, it can deal with certain number of faulty devices in a network during startup process. Robustness property is very important in safety-critical systems like modern transportation vehicles. In this paper, a single-fault tolerant configuration of TTEthernet is simulated, where one switch is faulty. For these purposes we used a simulator that we developed in OMNeT++ according to the SAE AS6802 standard. We have simulated several anomalies: Protocol Control Frames (individual and sequences of CS, CA, and IN frames) are sent in critical moments from a port of faulty switch to one of End Systems in the simulated network. The simulations show the negative impact of a faulty switch on a startup time (stepwise increase) of a non-faulty End System.