Impact of Anomalies within TTEthernet Network on Synchronization Protocol: Analysis Using OMNeT plus plus 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.