An IEEE1394-Based Real-Time Distributed IPC System for Collaborating TMO's

The TMO (Time-triggered Message-triggered Object) model is a well-known real-time object model for distributed timeliness computing. In a couple of years ago, we developed a Linux-based real-time kernel, named TMO-Linux, supporting deadline driven executions of TMO's. TMO-Linux and its distributed IPC subsystem have been used well in developing networked control systems consisting of cooperating embedded devices, but there have difficulties in executing some TMO applications accurately due to the lack of timeliness in distributed communications. To overcome this problem, we newly developed a real-time distributed IPC over IEEE1394 for the TMO-Linux kernel. In the new system, predictable delivery services for real-time messages are provided by isochronous transmissions of IEEE1394. To implement predictable delivery services, each node is set to have its own isochronous channel for receiving data that is allocated to a fixed time-slot bandwidth in an IEEE1394 frame. This paper presents an implementation technique for the IEEE1394-based real-time distributed IPC and collaborations of computing nodes using TMO-Linux.