Copyright © 2011 Miguel Díaz-Cacho Medina et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Network and control relationship is an essential aspect in the design of networked control systems (NCSs). The design parameters are mainly centered in the transmission rate and in the packet structure, and some studies have been made to determine how transmission rate affects the network delay and consequently the stability of the control. In Internet, these analysis are mathematically complex due to the large number of different potential scenarios. Using empirical methods, this work deduces that the transmission scheduling problem of an NCS can be solved by designing an appropriate transport protocol, taken into account high and periodic sampling rates. The transport protocol features are determined by simulation, using a new test platform based on the NS2 network simulation suite, to develop control/network codesign solutions. Conclusions of this paper are that the transport features are packet-loss-based flow control, best effort, and fairness, supplemented by a packet priority scheme.