With the advance of automation technology

the scale of industrial communication networks at field level is growing. Guaranteeing real-time performance of these networks is therefore becoming an increasingly difficult task. This paper addresses the optimization of device allocation in industrial Ethernet networks with real-time constraints (DAIEN-RC). Considering the inherent diversity of real-time requirements of typical industrial applications

a novel optimization criterion based on relative delay is proposed. A hybrid genetic algorithm incorporating a reduced variable neighborhood search (GA-rVNS) is developed for DAIEN-RC. Experimental results show that the proposed novel scheme achieves a superior performance compared to existing schemes

especially for large scale industrial networks.