The initiative will spearhead TSN interoperability in the network ecosystem.
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Avnu Alliance is a tech industry community working to create an interoperable ecosystem of low-latency, time-synchronized and reliable network devices based on certified standards. The consortium provides certifications for a variety of products based on IEEE standards. The community recently announced its work to drive alignment on Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) interoperability in the network ecosystem.
TSN builds upon Audio Video Bridging specifications to expand the range, functionality and applications of the standard for increasingly demanding applications. Avnu Alliance has been guiding the evolutions of the TSN specifications for new applications in the auto and industrial sectors and simplifying the process for engineers to build products that rely on TSN.
The Silicon Validation Task Group is leading the TSN initiative. It is open to all AVNU members and comprises silicon and IP companies, including Analog Devices, Intel, Keysight Technologies, Microchip, NXP Semiconductors, Texas Instruments, and TTTech, which are working to ensure that TSN features are included in various profiles interoperate.
According to Analog Devices’ industrial ethernet technology group’s Product Marketing Director Tom Weingartner, having standards-based interoperable silicon led to Ethernet’s universal success. The next generation of Ethernet and TSN could be equally successful under a standards-based approach achieved by the task group, he said.
“We consider an open, cross-industry standard like TSN as an essential basis for successful industrial automation projects. Interoperability at the silicon level ensures that customers have more choice and flexibility when digitalizing their production. As more companies and industries start using TSN, the huge benefits of interoperability increase—we can already see that in the plastics industry where the EUROMAP 79 standard specifies using TSN as the networking technology for injection molding machines,” said Thomas Berndorfer, member of the executive board of TTTech Industrial.
The new initiative isn’t the first time that Avnu has worked to establish a framework for industry players to collaborate on advancing TSN. To date, Avnu has supported some of the new key features in TSN, including added fault tolerance and redundancy, improvements in time-sensitive scheduling and latency control to AVB/TSN networks. In addition, the task group will enable competitors to collaborate on a testing ecosystem for the TSN capabilities of silicon and IP products and related software. Some of the collaboration activities will involve developing test plans, creating validation tools, and hosting plugfests.
The rationale behind the formation of the Silicon Validation Task Group is that interoperability is required at the silicon level to enable specialization further up the stack. Because TSN applications span many sectors, including ProAV, automotive, industrial manufacturing, and aerospace, base interoperability at the component level is needed for device interoperability across various applications and profiles, including IEEE/IEC 60802 for industrial, IEEE 802.1BA for ProAV, and any future profiles.
“Software, applications and profiles can all be tailored to specific use cases, but they need a stable network foundation to build on top of,” said Greg Schlechter, president of the Avnu Alliance. “The Silicon Validation Task Group includes key market players who can identify what TSN interoperability means for basic network components, and how we can get interoperable products to market.”
It’s envisioned that the task group’s work will position silicon vendors to achieve better economies of scale for TSN products. This would occur through a framework that uses a standard approach to verify base TSN capabilities independent of a specific profile or application. This will ultimately yield more products for a broader consumer base.
By pushing for interoperability at the silicon level, it’s thought that TSN will be flexible enough for a tech environment where advancement in one market can spill over into others. So, for example, TSN capabilities developed for industrial uses could be adopted by ProAV, which in turn could benefit Industry 4.0. Such a cycle of innovation cross-pollination was integral for Ethernet’s expansion.
“We see potential for TSN across several of our markets,” said Dieter Cohrs, real-time capability manager, Internet of Things group, Intel. “This effort of the component industry working together to further interoperability, starting at the silicon level, will help the overall ecosystem in all of the markets using TSN.”
