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wilamowski-b-m-irwin-j-d-industrial-communication-systems-2011

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44-2 Industrial Communication Systems<br />

44.2.1 Communication Cycles<br />

The <strong>communication</strong> in FlexRay is arranged in periodic cycles where every cycle consists of a static segment,<br />

an optional dynamic segment, a symbol window, and a network idle time phase, cf. Figure 44.1.<br />

Communication cycles are numbered sequentially from 0 to cycle 63; after cycle 63, the cycle count starts<br />

anew at 0. Every node transmits data in the static or the (optional) dynamic segment. While the static<br />

segment provides a <strong>communication</strong> mechanism for reliable data transmissions, the dynamic segment<br />

is intended to be used for nonsafety critical sporadic messages. The symbol window is used to transmit<br />

media test symbols in order to check the integrity of the optional bus-guardians, cf. Section 44.3. The<br />

network idle time is used for the offset correction of the local clock of every node. Therefore, FlexRay<br />

uses a distributed clock synchronization scheme by employing a fault-tolerant midpoint algorithm; see<br />

[WL88] for further details. Selected nodes send synchronization messages (having the sync bit set, see<br />

below); these messages get timestamped at every receiver and form the input for the clock synchronization<br />

algorithm along with the node’s local clock.<br />

In the static segment, <strong>communication</strong> follows a TDMA scheme. Herein, frames are transmitted<br />

within one or multiple preassigned time slots all having an equal length. In particular, transmission<br />

within an assigned slot starts after the so-called action-point offset (see Figure 44.1) and ceases some<br />

time before the end of the slot is reached. These times as well as the assignment of slots to nodes is<br />

configured at design time, that is, before a FlexRay cluster is put into operation. The number of slots n<br />

within the static segment can be configured between 2 and 1023.<br />

Using a minislotting access scheme, the dynamic segment is divided into multiple slots of equal length<br />

numbered in increasing sequence. A node may send a message whenever its configured frame identifier<br />

matches the slot number. In this case, the actual slot gets elongated by a multiple number of minislots<br />

up to the end of the dynamic segment. However, when no message is transmitted, a slot takes up only<br />

the length of one minislot. In both situations, the slot counter is incremented after one slot. Nodes may<br />

not be able to send frames with higher identifiers in the dynamic segment when other frames with lower<br />

identifiers have been sent before.<br />

CC 0<br />

Communication cycle (CC 63 )<br />

CC 0<br />

Static segment<br />

Dynamic segment<br />

Symbol<br />

window<br />

Network<br />

idle time<br />

Minislot 1<br />

Minislot 2<br />

Minislot 3<br />

Minislot m–1<br />

Minislot m<br />

Static slot 1<br />

Static slot 2<br />

Static slot n<br />

Action point offset<br />

Header segment Payload segment Trailer segment<br />

FIGURE 44.1<br />

Communication cycle.<br />

© <strong>2011</strong> by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

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