Info Image

Wireless TSN: Extending Time Sensitive Networking over Wireless to Support the Growing IoT

Wireless TSN: Extending Time Sensitive Networking over Wireless to Support the Growing IoT Image Credit: vectorfusionart/Bigstockphoto.com

Both Wi-Fi 6 and 5G represent new opportunities for extending their wireless connectivity benefits to fast-evolving connected applications, such as in the IIoT and manufacturing to support robotics, automated production lines, and more, as well as in enterprises, transportation, and a host of other consumer applications. With both technologies growing rapidly, there has never been a better time for ensuring their wireless capabilities can meet the future needs of our connected world.

The Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) family of IEEE 802.1 standards offers time synchronization, guaranteed delivery, and strictly bounded latency - features that enable the use of standard Ethernet in applications where the reliability and timing of data delivery are paramount. As part of the foundational open standards that empower modern networks, TSN is a future-proof solution that enables time sensitive applications across vertical markets, building on widely adopted LAN connectivity technologies such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi and now, on Wi-Fi 6/6E, and enabling integration with 5G in the near future. As the benefits of wireless communications are becoming increasingly apparent, e.g., greater flexibility, higher mobility and reconfigurability, and lower maintenance costs, interest in extending TSN to wireless applications is also growing.

As an organization dedicated to driving industry change and creating an interoperable ecosystem of networked devices using the foundational, open IEEE TSN standards, Avnu Alliance is well-positioned to help the industry determine next steps and interoperable solutions for Wireless TSN.

To introduce and summarize these new opportunities and to guide Avnu’s activities, the Avnu Wireless TSN Workgroup published a whitepaper, titled Wireless TSN – Definitions, Use Cases & Standards Roadmap.

The whitepaper introduces the basic terminology, use cases, and standards for extending TSN capabilities over wireless networks including Wi-Fi 6 and 5G. It also serves as an introduction to the larger concept of wireless TSN and a resource for defining the work required within Avnu, along with the contribution of industry partner organizations, to test and prepare the technology for the market.

Key takeaways from the whitepaper are summarized, below.

What is ‘Wireless TSN’? Defining its scope

As TSN-enabled devices and networks start to be deployed, enabling extensions of similar capabilities over wireless is a natural next step; The term “Wireless TSN” is used to refer to a wireless network that extends IEEE 802.1 TSN capabilities over wireless media.

The Wireless TSN links can enable wireless access to end devices and computing resources as well as extend the range of wired TSN networks. Several IEEE 802.1 TSN capabilities can operate over both Ethernet and Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi 6/6E brings new scheduling capabilities that significantly enhances the determinism of Wi-Fi. Although 5G systems are not directly compatible with IEEE 802.1 TSN specifications, the new 5G low latency and high reliability services have motivated the development of interfaces to enable a 5G system to be connected to a TSN capable network as a “virtual” TSN bridge. To fully leverage the IEEE 802.1 TSN standards and device ecosystem developed around them, it is important to enable seamless operation and interoperability that extends from wired to wireless TSN domains – this work is currently being evaluated by Avnu and other industry consortia.

Wireless use cases in industrial

Potential use-cases and applications - from robotics to the smart grids and beyond

The potential use-cases and applications for Wireless TSN are varied, but one of the most promising is the IIoT, which has seen adoption growth of TSN in recent years. Industrial robots require mobility, flexibility, and reconfigurability of tasks - this aligns well with wireless TSN’s value propositions, supporting the remote control, programming, diagnostics, navigation and real-time control of robotics without requiring them to be fixed in place. A robot leveraging wireless TSN can perform time-sensitive tasks with precise synchronization, across devices, creating a flexible and highly reliable network of collaborating devices.

Like the IIoT, the increasingly connected utilities industry is an ideal application for wireless TSN. Today’s electrical utilities rely on deterministic wired networks for the transmission, distribution, and generation of power. The IETF DetNet group has described the use case for deterministic networking in power grid applications in detail. Of note within their requirements is the density and variety of sensors that must be controlled in power grid applications; the need for redundant transport pathways for reliability; and the importance of security. The latter concern is pushing utilities toward the adoption of the best practices in packet-based networking and security: an open standards-based network that enables interoperability between vendors, driving down costs and opening options for applying the best security tools in the IT industry to also secure the grid. Real-time reliable wireless access and control of grid sensors will be critical to ensuring the growth of IoT in the utilities industry.

Critical infrastructure isn’t the only sector that will benefit from wireless TSN; enterprise and consumer technologies such as wireless gaming and virtual reality both require constrained, predictable latency as video frame rates climb and latency requirements decrease. The IEEE’s 802.11 Real Time Applications TIG Report explains this change in detail, further supporting the need for low-latency and highly reliable wireless transmissions.

The professional live media market can also benefit from a wireless approach - currently, a typical live performance touring production uses miles of Ethernet cabling connecting many individual devices that require quick set up and tear down up to hundreds of times per tour. Wireless TSN can assist in the transition from physical cables to portable, wireless connections, significantly reducing the overall cost of deployment and operation of live audio systems. Furthermore, this cost-effectiveness will be an important factor as live performances resume post-COVID.

Future opportunities and challenges

Wireless TSN has enormous potential to radically transform networking across industries in an open, standards-based fashion, but we are still in the exploratory phase.

Some of the challenges associated with mapping TSN capabilities to wireless include the fundamental differences between wireless and wired communications - for example, the variable capacity of wireless links and the Packet Error Rate (PER) being typically higher in wireless. The broadcast nature of wireless is another important aspect to be considered. On one hand, it may open up the possibility to reach more devices with a single transmission and on the other, it is more susceptible to interference. As a result, coordinated access is very important as well as resilience to interference.

Furthermore, dealing with the dynamics of wireless communication channels and new potential security threats due to interference and jamming will require more work to prove the resiliency of wireless systems comparable to wired connectivity.

It is critical that every key-player in the value chain, from standards organizations to manufacturers, system integrators, and service providers, make the investment in these cross-market collaborative standards development activities now, to fully capitalize on the increasing demands for wireless, time-sensitive applications.

Author

Dave Cavalcanti is currently Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation where he develops next generation wireless connectivity and networking technologies and their applications in autonomous, time-sensitive systems. He leads a team developing Wireless Time-Sensitive Networking capabilities over next generation 802.11 and 5G networks. He is Senior Member of the IEEE and serves as the chair of the Wireless TSN working group in the Avnu Alliance.

PREVIOUS POST

HPC in the Cloud: How to Take Advantage of ‘Supercomputing’ in a Cost-Effective Way

NEXT POST

Don’t Get Duped by a Duplicate