ABSTRACT
SAFEbus provides a time-based protocol that delivers messages with a precision on the order of 100 ns over a backplane network. The SAFEbus protocol can be implemented in an integrated circuit or FPGA with just 70,000 gates. SAFEbus provides data communication with very low jitter that is fail-op/fail-safe with near-unity coverage, even with a Byzantine failure. SAFEbus' determinism and support for robust partitioning warrants more detailed examination, since no other protocol provides these features to this extent. SAFEbus uses a frame description language to define the contents of each frame. This is an intermediary language that can be produced by off-line schedulers. SAFEbus was part of the Boeing 777 airplane certification and passed rigorous testing for design requirements to support Level A applications, the highest level of safety requirements.
