SICE-ICASE International Joint Conference 2006

Oct. 18-21, 2006 in Bexco, Busan, Korea

Ring Topology-based Redundancy Ethernet

for Industrial Network
Geon Yoon1 , Dae Hyun Kwon2 ,
Soon Chang Kwon3 , Yong Oon Park4 and Young Joon Lee5
1

Advanced Platform Team, Central R&D Center, LS Industrial Systems.Co.,Ltd. Korea

(Tel : +82-31-450-7585; E-mail: gyoon@lsis.biz)
2
Advanced Platform Team, Central R&D Center, LS Industrial Systems.Co.,Ltd. Korea
(Tel : +82-31-450-7577; E-mail: daehyunka@lsis.biz)
3
Advanced Platform Team, Central R&D Center, LS Industrial Systems.Co.,Ltd. Korea
(Tel : +82-31-450-7532; E-mail: soonchangk@lsis.biz)
4
Advanced Platform Team, Central R&D Center, LS Industrial Systems.Co.,Ltd. Korea
(Tel : +82-31-450-7627; E-mail: yongoonp@lsis.biz)
5
Automation Lab, Central R&D Center, LS Industrial Systems.Co.,Ltd. Korea
(Tel : +82-31-450-7628; E-mail: youngjoonl@lsis.biz)
Abstract: Recently Ethernet system is getting very high attention for industrial network. Industrial customers are no
longer satisfied with RS232 or RS485 data transmission; rather they are demanding the benefits of Ethernet
connectivity. However the star topology of Ethernet is not flexible and not reliable for industrial network because of
dependency on switch or hub.
This paper proposes the redundancy Ethernet system based on ring topology without switch or hub. And also proposes
the new topology adaptation network management protocol (TANMP). The topology of the proposed redundancy
Ethernet system can be flexibly changed from the ring topology to the line (daisy-chained) topology or opposite case.
And also guarantees packet-transmission to its destination in spite of a link-fault. TANMP supports the simple hop
count based routing function with high performance and manages network topology with minimum recovery time. In
this paper, we implement the proposed TANMP and analysis performance of the proposed ring topology based
redundancy Ethernet system for industrial network.
Keywords: Ethernet, Ring Topology, Network Management Protocol, Industrial Network
prevent unexpected packet-storm in ring topology
network. And another is how to minimize the path
recovery time against link-fault.
In ring network topology, the broadcast packets can
fall in unlimited loop, if they are not blocked or
consumed by some network station. The major ring
control scheme is logical polling [3] between master and
slave and logical token pass [7] to prevent unexpected
packet-storm in network.
In order to guarantee packet transmission using
redundant paths, new packet path have to be recovered
to guarantee packet transmission as soon as possible.
Therefore path recovery time is very important in ring
topology network. Most of todays intelligent ring
switches use a protocol known as fast spanning tree to
address redundant paths and assist in directing data in
the proper direction. However this fast spanning tree has
minimum 250ms recovery time because they frequently
send management packets to check network status, they
can find out the link-fault after checking response
time-out on the remote modules in network. [2][5] This
recovery time is not suitable for industrial network but
suitable for office network.
Measurement and control applications are
increasingly using distributed system technologies such
as high safety network system, local computing, and

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, almost of the distributed control systems
use high safety network system to communicate
between its objects from a sensor to sub-control system.
Therefore the importance of high safety network system
is swing upward steadily. The use of Ethernet system in
high safety network system with standardized protocols
is getting very high attention these days because of its
several advantages like as high performance, flexible
connectivity, interoperability and low price. [1][2][8][9]
In industrial network, on the other hand, the Ethernet
technology should overcome the dependency on switch
or hub to decrease risk from troubles of central system
as switch. In order to escape from the dependency on
switch and implement high safety network system, the
switch should be eliminated from the network system.
So the switch function is internalized network modules
based on Dual-Port Ethernet to configure daisy-chained
line topology network. However the daisy-chained line
topology is unstable against link-fault caused by cutting
media cable or power off. Therefore the ring topology
that can support redundancy path has been considered
like as token ring [7] and ring switch. [3][4][5]
In ring topology network, there are two issues to
make high safety network system. One is how to

89-950038-5-5 98560/06/$10 2006 ICASE

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Oct. 18-21, 2006 in Bexco, Busan, Korea
performance of the central process unit (CPU) because
of independent direct memory access function for only
packet buffering. If the CPU has to move the packets
from an Ethernet port to another one, the interrupt
overhead time from Ethernet port will be considerably
increased. Therefore this Dual-Port Ethernet hardware
architecture increases the performance of the network
by reducing packet delay per hop.

distributed objects. Many of these applications will be

enhanced by having an accurate system-wide sense of
time achieved by having local clocks in each sensor,
actuator, or other system device.
Therefore we propose ring topology Ethernet system
and topology adaptation network management protocol
(TANMP) with time synchronization based on full
duplex flow control. [6] The topology of the proposed
redundancy Ethernet system can be flexibly changed
from the ring topology to the line (daisy-chained)
topology or opposite case. And also guarantees
packet-transmission to its destination in spite of a
link-fault. TANMP supports the simple hop count based
routing function with high performance and manages
network topology with minimum recovery time.
Finally, we analysis the performance of the proposed
ring topology based redundancy Ethernet system.

3. RING TOPOLOGY BASED REDUNDANCY

NETWORK SYSTEM
3.1 Ring switch based network system
Todays ring topology network system is composed
of ring switch shown as figure 3. Each control system
communicates other control systems via intelligent ring
switches.

2. FULL DUPLEX FLOW CONTROL

The most important idea of this paper is full duplex
flow control scheme. Todays, there are many kinds of
switches with high performance. Their most important
idea is also full duplex flow control scheme shown as
figure 1.

Fig 3. Ring switch based network system

When the intelligent ring switches are initializing,
they elect the blocking switch, which blocks
packet-relay to prevent from unlimited packet loop.
However if one of switches fall in fault status like as
power problem or halt, whole nodes that connected to
the faulted switch can not communicate other control
systems.

Fig 1. Block diagram of Realtek 8305 switch controller

3.2 Proposed ring topology network system

We remove the switch from control network system
to overcome dependency on switch. We internalize the
of switchs functions to our Dual-Port Ethernet module
shown as figure 4. Each Ethernet port is exactly
independent. This module can control packet relay
between two ports based on topology adaptation
network management protocol (TANMP) described sub
clause.

In full duplex flow control system, packet

transmission and reception are simultaneously possible
without any interruption. We employ this full duplex
flow control scheme into our network interface module
shown as figure 2.

Fig 2. Full duplex control.

Fig 4. Dual-Port Ethernet module

The MAC controller has a bridge function to relay the

received Ethernet frames to another Ethernet port. This
hardware technology can considerably increase

In this paper, we implement new ring topology based

redundancy Ethernet system for industrial network

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Oct. 18-21, 2006 in Bexco, Busan, Korea
shown as figure 5. And we support ring topology as well
as line (daisy-chained) topology and star topology
shown as figure 6.

7 means the proper path based on hop count. When

local link-fault is sensed as No.2, newly redundancy
path is recovered as No.3 in figure 7.

Fig 5. Proposed ring topology network system

Fig 8. Remote link-fault

Remote link-fault means that the link between remote
node and its adjacent node is faulted. After link-fault
shown as figure 8, whole nodes in network receive the
message of The network status is changed. So whole
nodes can rearrange its routing table and then send
packet to newly recovered path.

Fig 6. Line(daisy-chained) topology

3.3 One-Fault tolerance scenarios in ring topology

Whole network nodes in ring topology network have
same priority to access medium. Therefore network
nodes can transmit packet when they want because they
use full duplex control scheme.
We have two major scenarios to consider how to
control ring topology network. One is local link-fault
and another is remote link-fault.

4. TOPOLOGY ADAPTATION NETWORK

MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL (TANMP)
4.1 Stack of TANMP
The proposed topology adaptation network
management protocol (TANMP) manages network
status and node status. It controls the ring topology
network to eliminate the unlimited loop packets. When
network topology is changed from ring to line
(daisy-chained) or opposite case, TANMP rearranges
the routing table for the destination address of Ethernet
frames. TANMP is composed of TANMP core,
Transmitter controller, routing manager, packets relay
controller and four data base shown as figure 9.

Fig 7. Local link-fault

Local link-fault means that the link between local
node and adjacent node is faulted. When the node
senses local link-fault in the proposed ring topology
network system, it broadcasts the message of The
network status is changed from ring to line. And then it
recovers the path another redundant path immediately.
The figure 7 shows local link-fault. No.1 path of figure

Fig 9. TANMP stack

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SICE-ICASE International Joint Conference 2006

Oct. 18-21, 2006 in Bexco, Busan, Korea
TANMP core manages node state machine according
local hardware event and network event.
The transmitter controller controls packet-transmit
according destination of packet by referring to simple
routing table.
The routing manager manages the position of the
other nodes except itself based on hop counter in
redundancy Ethernet system.
Packet relay controller is worked by TANMP.
TANMP core controls whether blocks packet relay or
not.
If the node is elected as the ring manager node, it
logically blocks to eliminate unlimited loop packets.
The other nodes which are not elected as a ring manager,
rearrange its routing table through the routing manager
object because of the logical blocking path.

REFERENCES
[1] Kai Hansen. Redundancy Ethernet in Industrial
Automation, Emerging Technologies and Factory
Automation, Vol. 2, pp. 941-947, 2005. Sept
[2] A white paper Delivery of Data in industrial
Applications, MICREL.
[3] Hirschman Ring Switch www.hirschmann.com
[4] Hilscher netX, www.hilscher.com
[5] Profinet, Industrial Ethernet, SCALANCE,
www.automation.siemens.com/net/index_00.htm,
Siemens.
[6] IEEE
Standard
1588
Precision
Clock
Synchronization Protocol
[7] IEEE Standard 802.5 Token Ring
[8] IEC PAS 62407, Real-time Ethernet control
automation technology(EtherCAT)
[9] IEC
PAS
62408,
Real-time
Ethernet
Powerlink(EPL)
[10] IEC PAS 62409, Real-time Ethernet for Plant
Automation(EPA)
[11] IEC PAS 62401, Real-time Ethernet SERCOSIII
[12] IEC PAS 62413, Real-time Ethernet EtherNet/IP with time synchronization.

4.2 Path Recovery Time

When link-fault caused by cutting media cable or
power off is occurred during communication between
nodes, the packet path should be rearranged to get
minimum response time as soon as possible.
Figure 10 shows path recovery time when local link
fault event is occurred. TANMP core change its state
and network state from ring to line (daisy-chained) and
then recovers path through routing manager. The
recovery time is the time interval from the link-fault to
new data reception. We can find the recovery time is
about 1ms.

Fig 10. Path Recovery Time

5. Conclusion
The paper proposes the redundancy Ethernet system
based on ring topology without switch or hub. And also
proposes the new topology adaptation network
management protocol (TANMP). The topology of the
proposed redundancy Ethernet system can be flexibly
changed from the ring topology to the line
(daisy-chained) topology or opposite case. And also
guarantees packet-transmission to its destination in spite
of a link-fault with minimum recovery time. Therefore
we hope to this new ring topology Ethernet network
system will replace traditional ring topology network
system. And in coming days, it will be base technology
for redundant based high safety network system.

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