Performance analysis of the Ethernet Powerlink PollResponse Chaining mechanism

摘要

Ethernet Powerlink (EPL) is an industrial Ethernet networking solution that enables hard real-time communication in distributed control and automation systems. The PollResponse Chaining (PRC) mechanism is an extension of the EPL protocol aimed at increasing the network performance when nodes exchange small amount of data, especially if they are connected in line topology. In this paper, we conduct performance assessment of the PRC mechanism for two basic network configurations (line and star topology). In addition, we provide some experimental results obtained by measuring relevant timing parameters of the real EPL network prototype operating in the PRC mode.