A Scheme for Reliable Real-Time Messaging with Bounded Delays

Network‐based real‐time computing applications that require tightly bounded end‐to‐end delays have been increasing at a steady rate in recent years. A messaging layer that yields tight bounds on the latencies in detecting message losses and enables the application layer to initiate a timely recovery action has thus become highly desirable. In this paper, we present a new reliable real‐time messaging scheme called the Delay‐Bounded Reliable Messaging Scheme (DB‐RMS) that is aimed at meeting such requirements. It is built on top of the User Datagram Protocol sub‐layer. DB‐RMS provides multiple service options, each with different fault detection/recovery capabilities and different costs in terms of the execution overhead. This feature makes DB‐RMS suitable for a variety of applications. In this paper, the DB‐RMS service options and the corresponding support protocols are presented first followed by a formal analysis on the detection and reaction latency bounds under various service options. A messaging layer prototype using DB‐RMS has been implemented. To demonstrate the practice of the DB‐RMS, we implemented a clock synchronization algorithm for 802.11 wireless local area networks on top of the DB‐RMS messaging layer. Performance measurements of the prototype implementation have been taken, and the positive results obtained are also presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.