Efficient Many-to-Many Real-Time Communication Using an Intelligent Ethernet Switch

This paper presents a solution for efficient many-to-many communication over switched Ethernet. The performance of using an ordinary switch and an intelligent switch is compared, and the results of the analysis based on 100 Mbit/s fast Ethernet show that an intelligent switch used to handle many-to-many communication can give better performance (shorter latency and higher utilization) than an ordinary switch. We also extend the network to serve many-to-many traffic with real-time demands by adding a thin software layer to the intelligent Ethernet switch and the end-nodes. Earliest deadline first (EDF) scheduling is used.©2004 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.