Flexible Measurement Testbed for Evaluating Time-Sensitive Networking in Industrial Automation Applications

Stefan Senk, Marian Ulbricht, Javier Acevedo, Giang T. Nguyen, Patrick Seeling, Frank H.P. Fitzek

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Deterministic communications are required for industrial environments, yet their realization is a challenging task. Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is intended to enable deterministic communication over inexpensive Ethernet networks. Standardized by the IEEE TSN working group, TSN enables precise control of time synchronization, traffic shaping, reliability enhancements, and network administration to answer the demands of industrial control applications. Subsequently, there is a significant need to enable turnkey research and implementation efforts. However, a current lack of open-sourced testbed implementations to investigate and study the behavior of TSN network devices limits verification to simulation and theoretical models. We introduce a publicly available, flexible, and open-sourced measurement testbed for evaluating TSN in the context of industrial automation applications to address the need to perform real-world measurements. In this contribution, we describe our testbed combining Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and existing open-source tools as a platform for in-depth evaluation of TSN devices. Providing detailed TSN backgrounds, we describe an in-depth performance analysis for our implementation. For a common Tactile Internet scenario, we observe an accuracy of close to 5 ns achievable with our publicly available COTS setup.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization
Subtitle of host publicationNetwork Softwarization Coming of Age: New Challenges and Opportunities, NetSoft 2022
EditorsAlexander Clemm, Guido Maier, Carmen Mas Machuca, K.K. Ramakrishnan, Fulvio Risso, Prosper Chemouil, Noura Limam
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages402-410
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9781665406949
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Event8th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization, NetSoft 2022 - Milan, Italy
Duration: Jun 27 2022Jul 1 2022

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization: Network Softwarization Coming of Age: New Challenges and Opportunities, NetSoft 2022

Conference

Conference8th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization, NetSoft 2022
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityMilan
Period06/27/2207/1/22

Keywords

  • IEEE Standards
  • Measurement
  • Quality of Service
  • Testbed
  • Time-sensitive Networking

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