Analysis and Optimisation of Multishaper Multidomain Time-Sensitive Networks: State-of-the-Art and Open Challenges

Abstract

Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is a foundational technology for deterministic communication in industrial automation, automotive and aerospace applications. However, its complexity increases significantly when handling heterogeneous traffic with multiple shaping mechanisms and when networks span multiple administrative domains. This paper presents a targeted state-of-the-art review of analysis and optimisation methods for such multishaper and multidomain TSN systems. We selected representative works through keyword searches on scholarly databases and expert-driven citation analysis, focusing on papers that directly contribute analysis or optimisation methods for these configurations. This review examines four multishaper combinations, that is, time-aware shaper (TAS) with credit-based shaper (CBS), asynchronous traffic shaper (ATS), cyclic queueing and forwarding (CQF) and frame pre-emption (FP), and four multidomain scenarios, that is, TSN-to-TSN federation, TSN-to-Deterministic Networking (DetNet) integration, TSN-to-5G and TSN-to-Wi-Fi convergence. We synthesise 44 representative works in two comparative tables that categorise each study by analysis method, optimisation approach, configuration scope and validation scale. Based on the review and experimental evidence, we summarise 14 open challenge categories across multishaper and multidomain configurations, including the scalability of formal analysis methods, the impact of hardware constraints and the need for unified runtime configuration. Case studies further show that formal analyses become impractical inside large optimisation loops, that joint multishaper optimisation is necessary to avoid infeasible configurations and that large-scale multidomain orchestration remains computationally expensive. We outline future research directions to address these gaps for next-generation industrial systems.