초록
Fieldbus is the lowest level communication network in factory automation and process control systems. Performance of factory automation and process control systems is directly affected by the data delay induced by network traffic. Data generated from several distributed field devices can be largely divided into three categories: sporadic real-time, periodic real-time and non real-time data. Since these data share one fieldbus network medium, the limited bandwidth of a fieldbus network must be appropriately allocated to the sporadic real-time, periodic real-time and non real-time traffic. This paper introduces a new fieldbus design scheme which allocates the limited bandwidth of fieldbus network to several different kinds of traffic. The design scheme introduced in this study not only satisfies the performance requirements of application systems interconnected into the fieldbus but also fully utilizes the network resources. The design scheme introduced in this study can be applicable to cyclic service protocols operated under single-service discipline. The bandwidth allocation scheme introduced in this study is verified using a discrete-event/continuous-time simulation experiment.