The objective of this project is to develop a network framework, based on switched Ethernet, suitable to support CPS, by including an explicit and efficient support to component-oriented design methodologies. The framework shall support:

• Heterogeneous traffic classes with temporal isolation
• Partitioning and virtualization mechanisms
• Hierarchical multi-level server composition
• Dynamic adaptation and reconfiguration of servers with temporal guarantees
• Analytical tools for supporting the design of CPS
• Middleware for service management

The project uses as start point the Ethernet switch currently under development in the scope of the FCT funded HaRTES project (PTDC/EEA-ACR/73307/2006), which already supports enhanced traffic scheduling services.The features of the Ethernet switch proposed in this project represent a breakthrough in terms of the adequacy of RTE protocols to highly complex CPS, where flexibility and composability in the time domain are design requirements. The technology proposed allows, in an innovative way, using the same network to handle multiple traffic sources (e.g. web access, file transfer, live video/audio, control data) in a dynamic way, making an efficient utilization of the resources and without compromising the performance of real-time applications.