TSN Evaluation Kit has integral 802.1AS and 802.1Qbv standards
20-09-2016 | By Paul Whytock
Ethernet semiconductor solutions specialists Innovasic has developed a TSN Evaluation Kit based on its fido5000 REM Switch technology. The kit can evaluate the features of the emerging IEEE 802.1 Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards.
TSN are standards that specify mechanisms for the time-sensitive transmission of data over Ethernet networks. Possible applications include converged networks which are used in automotive or industrial control systems.
It is not a single technology but many different ones and a particular operation advantage is there is no need to wait for all parts of the standard to be released because the IEEE 802.1 standardisation process makes sure new specifications are compatible with existing standards.
TSN enables real-time and non-real-time communication on the same network and it supports fault-tolerance and bandwidth reservation which enhances Ethernet technology.
The kit from Innovasic is pre-installed with TSN features starting with 802.1AS and 802.1Qbv. As TSN standards evolve, new features will be made available as free downloads through Innovasic’s Developer Portal. The TSN standards that will be supported by future updates to the kit are:
- 802.1AS, AS-REV – Time Synchronisation
- 802.1Qbv – Scheduled Traffic (updates)
- 802.1Qci – Ingress Policing
- 802.1CB – Seamless Redundancy
- 802.1Qcc – Centralised Configuration
- 802.1bu – Pre-emption
Evaluation of TSN is simplified by using the kit as a TSN gateway. Ethernet enabled devices can be plugged into the kit’s standard Ethernet port and the other two ports are plugged into a TSN network.
The gateway is then configured to send and receive TSN streams over the TSN network based messages to and from the standard Ethernet device. In this way, a standard Ethernet device can talk to any other TSN-enabled device on a TSN network.
