This diploma thesis concerns the development of software for a debugging-platform for ETHERNET-Powerlink-networks, based on the OSGi service platform.

ETHERNET Powerlink is an IEEE 803.2 Fast Ethernet based real-time network protocol. The Institute of Embedded Systems has for a considerable time now, been involved in the development of ETHERNET Powerlink and is one of the driving forces in enhancing and spreading the technology. OSGi is an open, modular and scalable Java based service platform. One of the most remarkable features of OSGi is its live cycle management and service registration. It enables the dynamically installation and removal of services at run-time.

Up until this point it was extremely difficult to find errors in a EPL-network. The only solution was the use of a network-analyzer to capture the data-streams, and inspect each telegram to find the errors. To make debugging of EPL-networks more efficient this totally new aproach was adopted. A tester is now able to write his own software bundles to test some network functionality. The software written in this thesis is able to run those bundes dynamically and to provide a debugging framework. Additionally a few test programs where written to check the network about certain basic criteria.

The project was a success. The solution is a remote controllable platform which can be extended at any time ? even at run-time. This enables a tester to debug a network in a much shorter time.

However, the whole project is by no means finished. More work is required to develop a inexpensive hardware-platform to run the written software on.