ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a general unified framework for the modeling of the limited communication in Network Control Systems (NCSs). It shows how the communication dynamics can be described by a special time-varying graph characterized. The communication protocols are deterministic in the sense that at each time instant the nodes that are accessing the communication medium are known exactly. Time-triggered communication is the preferred choice for safety-critical systems. An NCS is a control system where the communication between a multivariable plant and the feedback controller is constrained. The limited sensor-to-controller and controller-to-actuator communication is modeled as a scheduler. The modeling approach presented so far assumes that only one network is used as a communication medium to connect the physical nodes. Communication between Electronic Control Units (ECUs) is via a single Controller Area Network bus and therefore only one ECU can access the communication medium at any time tick.
