Real Time Analysis of Wireless Controller Area Network

It is widely known that Control Area Networks (CAN) are used in real-time, distributed and parallel processing which cover manufacture plants, humanoid robots, networking fields, etc., In applications where wireless conditions are encountered it is convenient to continue the exchange of CAN frames within the Wireless CAN (WCAN). The WCAN considered in this research is based on wireless token ring protocol (WTRP); a MAC protocol for wireless networks to reduce the number of retransmissions due to collision and the wired counterpart CAN attribute on message based communication. WCAN uses token frame method to provide channel access to the nodes in the system. This method allow all the nodes to share common broadcast channel by taken turns in transmitting upon receiving the token frame which is circulating within the network for specified amount of time. This method provides high throughput in bounded latency environment, consistent and predictable delays and good packet delivery ratio. The most important factor to consider when evaluating a control network is the end-to-end time delay between sensors, controllers, and actuators. The correct operation of a control system depends on the timeliness of the data coming over the network, and thus, a control network should be able to guarantee message delivery within a bounded transmission time. The proposed WCAN is modeled and simulated using QualNet, and its average end to end delay and packet delivery ratio (PDR) are calculated. The parameters boundaries of WCAN are evaluated to guarantee a maximum throughput and a minimum latency time, in the case of wireless communications, precisely WCAN.