Leader: Katia Jaffres-Runser

The team has developed a strong expertise on the design, engineering and performance evaluation of embedded networks and protocols. One of the very specific expertise developed in the team is the design of certifiable embedded networks in the context of real-time systems. Their long-lasting collaboration with the avionics industry of Toulouse made the team develop the algorithms used to certify an AFDX network, the now de-facto networking standard for civil avionics. Certification algorithms together with the specification of AFDX offered the avionics industry a by-design certified embedded network. Mathematical tools such as network calculus, trajectory approach or model checking are leveraged for wired embedded network certification. This research has been driven by several research projects in the last two decades, nurturing a dozen of PhDs. Currently, they are investigating the design of new certifiable protocols for embedded real-time machine-to-machine communications, with a specific focus on the new time sensitive networking technology. Another more recent and core interest of this group is the certifiable design of wireless protocols for cyber physical systems. Machine to machine communications have to ensure reliability but timeliness on top of that in this wireless context. For wireless systems, stochastic bounds on communication delays have to be derived for certification. First results have led to the definition of models and algorithms for distributed medium access protocols and for centralized deterministic medium access protocols. For the latter types of protocols, efforts on time synchronization protocol certification are currently going on. Results on certifiable wireless protocols will serve several operational contexts : embedded networking, cyber-physical systems or industry 4.0.