A novel seamless redundancy protocol for Ethernet

Abstract

High availability is crucial for industrial Ethernet networks and Ethernet-based control systems, such as automation networks and substation automation systems. As standard Ethernet does not support fault tolerance capability, the high availability of Ethernet networks can be increased by using redundancy protocols. In this paper, we present a novel seamless redundancy protocol for Ethernet networks called the Redundancy Protocol for Ethernet (RPE). Our proposed RPE not only provides seamless communications with zero switchover time in case of failure, but it also supports any topologies. The RPE is transparent and compatible with standard Ethernet nodes. These features of the RPE make it very useful for time-critical and mission-critical systems, such as substation automation systems, automation networks, and other industrial Ethernet networks.