Increasing Ethernet TSN Multi-Protocol Interoperability by Algorithmic Configuration Merge

Abstract

Standardization and prototyping of Ethernet Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) makes progress and its mechanisms are utilized with various application protocols and technologies within the industrial automation domain. Sharing Ethernet TSN mechanisms in multi-protocol networks impacts interoperability. Although the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) attempt to unify Ethernet TSN utilization with the IEC/IEEE 60802 TSN Profile for Industrial Automation, Ethernet TSN devices already exists on the market by different vendors. An area of conflict is the egress configuration of a single Ethernet-Interface for TSN streams of different technologies, such as PROFINET, CC-Link IE TSN and OPC UA Field eXchange. A practical post processing solution can be to merge Ethernet TSN configurations for a single port. A concept for a Configuration Merge Algorithm (COMEA) is presented in this work. A test environment consisting of multiple industrial automation applications with an Ethernet TSN network infrastructure is used to demonstrate the result of application.