Easy-to-Read Glossary
 

This glossary uses the situation of people in a business meeting as a metaphor for terms in the area of time-triggered systems:

 

Babbling Idiot
Meeting member who does not stop speaking nonsense

 

Bus Guardian
Meeting timer who allows people to speak within their predefined time frame

 

Byzantine Failure
Is a failure where some meeting members receive a message different from other messages

 

Cluster
All meeting participants taken together

 

Cluster Cycle
In TTP one full communication round where every meeting member speaks once is called a TDMA round. After a predefined number of TDMA rounds the same messages are repeated. This is called a cluster cycle.

 

Consistency
In the meeting all people know about the information each of the other participants have. They all plan their actions on the basis of the information available to all.

 

Fault Tolerance
Any component in a system can fail. TTP is designed to tolerate any failure.

 

Frame
One communication sequence of one of the meeting participants consisting of one or several messages

 

Jitter
Difference between the maximum and minimum duration of an action

 

Message Descriptor List (MEDL)
Meeting timer or agenda covering the detailed timing of the meeting. The MEDL does not give any restrictions regarding the content or semantics of the messages.

 

Membership
List of correct (sane) meeting participants. In the meeting every participant starts his communication with a list of the other participants who he thinks receive and send meaningful information. By checking the list he receives from the other participants he can make sure if his information was received successfully.

 

Node
Meeting participant

 

Slightly Off Specification (SOS) fault
One node sends a signal that is at the edge of what the receiver understands as "1" or "0". For example, in a 5V system the limit might be specified at 4.5V. If a signal is exactly 4.5V, some receivers might understand "1" and others "0".

 

Time division multiple access (TDMA) round
One round of communication in which every member has had a chance to speak
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