Cluster simulation - support for distributed development of hard real-time systems using TDMA-based communication

in the field of safety-critical real-time systems the development of distributed applications for fault tolerance reasons is a common practice. Hereby the whole application is divided into several distinct sub-systems, which are afterwards mapped onto a set of associated processors called nodes. Cluster simulation provides a cheap and useful technique to test single nodes of a distributed application in isolation. Compared to alternative test approaches where the whole distributed system has to be built up the hardware requirements imposed by cluster simulation are rather small. We present an approach together with a prototype implementation for cluster simulation in distributed hard real-time systems using TDMA-based communication. This cluster simulator has proven to be a valuable development support tool for single nodes within a distributed application by providing a versatile platform for validation of the nodes behavior against the rest of the distributed system.