I2C Based Networking for Implementing Heterogeneous Microcontroller Based Distributed Embedded Systems

Realising a distributed heterogeneous embedded system using I²C requires investigations and findings related to design of networking, architecture, message design and flow for prioritisation, and datagram design. The existing methods for effecting communication among the heterogeneous embedded systems interconnected through I²C communication system have not addressed the heterogeneity issues. To suffice, new methods for designing Heterogeneous Embedded networks, communication systems, message flow systems and the message design have presented. The methods have been applied to an existing distributed embedded system and the results obtained proved to be exact as required. Every distributed embedded system is different and the kind of Hardware and protocol conversions required is dependent on the type of distributed embedded system. It has been shown in the paper the kind of conversions that must be undertaken considering I²C as the communication method and a set of selected heterogeneous embedded systems that are used for developing an application that monitors and controls the temperatures within a Nuclear reactor system. The way the communication must be effected is dependent on the number of masters and the slaves that must be supported on the network. A communication system architecture that suits the pilot project has been presented. A design flow method which uses priority queues has been presented to effect the communication according to the flow required. The design of datagram required for effecting the communication has also been presented in the paper. The methods have been applied to an existing distributed heterogeneous embedded system that monitors and controls the temperatures with a Nuclear reactor system and the results have been found to be exact fulfilling all the application requirements.