Abstract
In contrast with conventional fieldbus researches which are focused merely on real-time performance, this study aims to evaluate the real-time performance of the communication system including fault-tolerant mechanisms Maintaining performance in presence of recoverable faults is very important in case that the communication network is applied to a highly reliable system such as next generation Nuclear. Power. Plant (NPP). If the tie characteristics meet the requirements of the system, the faults will be recovered by fieldbus recovery mechanisms and the system will be safe. If the time characteristics can not meet the requirements, the faults in the fieldbus can propagate to the system failure. In this study, for the purpose of investigating the time characteristics of fieldbus, the recoverable faults are classified and then the formulas that represent delays including recovery mechanisms are developed. In order to validate the proposed approach, we have developed a simulation model that represents the Korea Next Generation Reactor (KNGR) NSSS Process Control System (NPCS). The results of the simulation show us the reasonable delay characteristics of the fault cases with recovery mechanisms. Using the simulation results and the system requirements, we also can calculate the failure propagation probability from fieldbus to outer system.