Introduction to Time-Sensitive Networking

Abstract

Since the year 2000, a number of companies and standards development organizations have been producing products and standards for Time-Sensitive Networking to support real-time applications that require zero packet loss due to buffer congestion, extremely low packet loss due to equipment failure, and guaranteed upper bounds on end-to-end latency. Often, a robust capability for time synchronization to less than 1 s is also required. These networks consist of specially-featured bridges that are interconnected using standard Ethernet links with standard MAC/PHY layers. Since the year 2012, this technology has advanced to the use of routers, as well as bridges, and features of interest to Time-Sensitive Net-working have been added to both Ethernet and wireless standards. Since the year 2018, TSN standardization has been expanding to include more queuing and pacing technologies, and to support new markets, such as industrial, automotive, aviation, and service provider applications.