The processes of accessing a shared communication media have been extensively researched in the dependability and real-time area. For embedded systems, the primary approaches have revolved around the event-triggered and the time-triggered paradigms. In this paper, our goal is to objectively and quantitatively outline the capabilities and limitations of each of these paradigms. The event-triggered approach is commonly perceived as providing high flexibility, while the time-triggered approach is expected to provide for a higher degree of predictable communication access to the media. We have quantified the spread of their differences, and provide a summary discussion about suggested best usage for each approach. The focus of our work is on the response times of the communication system, and also on the schedulability of the communication system in collaboration with tasks in the nodes. © 2003 IEEE.