INCREASING THE REAL-TIME CAPABILITY OF ETHERNET NETWORKS

摘要

The invention relates to a method for transmitting at least one Ethernet packet between a transmitter and a receiver, to a device for carrying out a method according to the invention and to a network apparatus having such a device. In order to achieve a high degree of real-time capability and deterministics when using IEEE 802.3-compliant network components, according to the invention each Ethernet packet is segmented at the transmitter into a number of Ethernet packets, referred to as Ethernet cells, and is reassembled again at the receiver. By segmenting the Ethernet packets into Ethernet cells - naturally having a length clearly smaller than the maximum packet size - high-priority real-time packets are delayed for a significantly shorter time than long, unsegmented Ethernet packets.