TSN-FlexTest: Flexible TSN Measurement Testbed

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

In order to provide consistent low-latency communication network services, Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) unites a set of standards for time-synchronization, flow control, enhanced reliability, and management. We design the TSNFlexTest testbed with generic commodity hardware and opensource software components to enable flexible TSN measurements. We have conducted extensive measurements to validate the TSN-FlexTest testbed and to examine TSN characteristics. The measurements provide insights into the effects of TSN configurations, such as increasing the number of synchronization messages for the Precision Time Protocol, indicating that a measurement precision of 30 ns can be achieved. The TSN measurements included extensive evaluations of the Time-aware Shaper (TAS) for sets of Tactile Internet (TI) packet traffic streams. The measurements elucidate the effects of different scheduling and shaping approaches, while revealing the need for pervasive network control that synchronizes the sending nodes with the network switches. We present the first measurements of distributed TAS with synchronized senders on a commodity hardware testbed, demonstrating the same Quality-of-Service as with dedicated wires for high-priority TI streams despite a 200 over-saturation cross traffic load. The testbed is provided as an open-source project to facilitate future TSN research.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1387-1402
Number of pages16
JournalIEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management
Volume21
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 24 Oct 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-7008-1537/work/158767456
ORCID /0000-0003-0745-2264/work/158767920
ORCID /0000-0001-8469-9573/work/161891125

Keywords

Keywords

  • Emulation, Ethernet, Hardware, Industrial Communication, Mathematical analysis, Protocols, Quality-of-Service, Software, Standards, Synchronization, Testbed, Time-Sensitive Networking