A Modular Design Concept for Shaping Future Wireless TSN Solutions

Abstract

The use of wireless communication systems in industrial environments is gaining international importance. The requirements, which are placed thereby on the communication systems, are manifold depending on the specific use. In the field of industrial manufacturing, however, many applications are characterized by high reliability requirements and hard real-time demands. The latter requires a time-deterministic handling of processed transmissions and therefore requires the use of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) solutions. In this paper, we briefly describe which functionalities characterize a wireless TSN system and which approaches have already been pursued in the literature and standardization. Subsequently, we present a concept for a toolbox that allows one to combine the required functionalities into a working solution, which can be used as a guideline for software-based implementation. Additionally, since reliability of transmissions is one of the key challenges, especially in wireless communication, to achieve a performance comparable to wired systems, we provide some further design considerations to improve.

Keywords

• clock synchronization
• industrial radio
• IEEE 802.11
• WLAN
• TSN
• PTP