SPRT769 December   2023 AM2431 , AM2432 , AM2434 , AM6421 , AM6422 , AM6441 , AM6442

 

  1.   1
  2.   Abstract
  3. 1 Introduction
  4. 2 Industrial Communications Terminology
  5. 3 Industrial Communication Feature Support
  6. 4 Industrial Communications Device Support
  7. 5 Industrial Communications Controller Support
  8. 6 PRP Support
  9. 7 HSR Support
  10. 8 TSN Support
  11. 9 Summary
  12. 10Additional Resources

8 TSN Support

TSN is collection of IEEE standards developed by the 802.1 Working Group (WG) that adds real-time, deterministic services to Ethernet networks. TSN offers similar levels of performance in terms of determinism and reduced latency as found in current industrial communication protocols but adds additional features, flexibility, and the advantage of being an IEEE standard. TSN was developed to support industrial, automotive, aviation and aerospace, and audio, video networks.

TSN enables the convergence of information technology (IT) and operation technology (OT) networks, with real-time and non-real-time traffic sharing a common network at Gbps speeds.

The individual TSN standards can be grouped into 4 categories of service:

  1. Time Synchronization: To support real-time, deterministic networking services, each network element must share a common definition of time. 802.1 AS-2020 is based on IEEE 1588v2 PTP and provides timing synchronization based on a Grand Master timing source to within < ±1 μs.
  2. Real-time determinism: 802.1AS-2020 along with traffic shaping, double buffering and bridge synchronization, frame preemption, and cut-through switching support real-time deterministic traffic as well as non-time-critical traffic on the same network. IT and OT traffic can share a common network significantly reducing deployment and network management costs.
  3. High-Availability Networking: TSN supports high-availability, zero down time performance similar to HSR and PRP.
  4. Network Management and Configuration: TSN defines a common network management and configuration method using industry standard YANG data models and NETCONF to simplify and reduce network management costs. Both IT and OT network traffic can be managed via a common tool set.

Figure 8-1 lists the current published TSN standards grouped by function. Which individual standards get implemented in a network depend on the performance and feature set requirements of the network. Many current TSN networks support only 802.1AS-2020 (Time Synchronization) and 802.1Qav (Credit Based Traffic Shaping).

The TSN Task Group is working on additional standards as well as amendments to the existing standards. Access to the draft standards is available to IEEE 802.1 WG members on the IEEE 802.1 website.

GUID-20231110-SS0I-DXNX-XCL2-2TTNJXTDQN5G-low.svgFigure 8-1 TSN Standard Groupings

Today’s industrial communication protocols are being modified to coexist with TSN. The idea is to use TSN at layers 1 and 2 of the OSI model and implement the industrial communication protocol at layers 3–7. This provides the best of both worlds, extending the life of existing industrial protocols and leveraging industry standards to reduce equipment costs and simplify hardware development. Examples include PROFINET over TSN, EtherNet/IP over TSN, OPC UA over TSN, and CC-Link IE TSN.

TSN is supported on all AM243x and AM64x device options (on both the CPSW and ICSSG). For the specific TSN standards supported, please see the AM243x SDK and AM64x SDK . Table 9-1 and Table 9-2 summarize AM243x and AM64x TSN support.

For additional information on TSN, see the Time Sensitive Networking for Industrial Automation white paper.