AN EXTENDED TCP IP PROTOCOL FOR REAL-TIME LOCAL-AREA NETWORKS/

This paper proposes an extended TCP/IP protocol, LAN-TCP, that can be used for distributed soft real-time systems connected through an Ether net-based local area network. Since LAN-TCP shows soft real-time perfo rmance, while maintaining compatibility and interoperability with the standard TCP/IP, the existing application software can be used without any modification. LAN-TCP also provides a periodic transmission mode (PTM), with which periodic data collection and the updating of the con trol signals can be efficiently implemented with relatively small traf fic overhead. This paper includes a computer simulation and experiment al results for the proposed protocol. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.