Why TSN is automation’s new baseline
For machine builders and system integrators, time-sensitive networking (TSN) represents a shift to guaranteed data delivery. To avoid data packets’ being delayed by traffic jams, TSN is a set of IEEE 802.1 standards that allows critical control data, such as motion commands, and non-critical data, such as a video feed or a PDF manual, to travel over the same cable without interfering with each other, making TSN a baseline requirement in many factory and plant applications.
The need for hard, real-time determinism, the convergence of IT and OT applications, demand for suppliers’ component interoperability and system scalability for big data and artificial intelligence (AI) have driven the increased interest in time-sensitive networking.
In high-performance motion control, if a stop command or a position update is delayed by even a few milliseconds due to network congestion, it can cause a machine crash or a safety violation. TSN ensures that high-priority control packets have a reserved lane on the network.
Time-sensitive networking also allows network convergence between IT and OT, so controls engineers can run PLC logic and safety signals with ERP data all on one unified infrastructure.
For a system integrator, pulling fewer cables, buying fewer switches and having a single point of diagnostics for the entire plant are benefits of TSN.
Varied network protocols can require specialized hardware or middleware to talk to one another on the same wire. TSN standards affect the data link layer (Layer 2), allowing machine builders to mix and match components from different suppliers more easily.
Machine data has never been more in demand. Massive amounts of data are generated and collected for predictive analytics and edge computing. By using time-aware shapers, TSN schedules traffic, pausing low-priority data for a fraction of a microsecond to let the critical control loop pass through.
