TSN-based Converged Industrial Networks: Evolutionary Steps and Migration Paths
Christian von Arnim, Mihai Dragan, Florian Frick, Armin Lechler, Oliver Riedel, Alexander W. Verl · 2020
The digitalization of production is a strategic goal in the automation industry, though visions and industrial reality remain far apart. A key issue is that today's segmented communication architecture based on fieldbus networks does not fulfill the future requirements. Converged networks connecting IT and OT systems while maintaining deterministic guarantees for real-time communication are required instead. Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) in the context of IEEE 802.1 Ethernet is a key enabling technology for converged networks. The transition from current communication architectures towards converged networks will not be a disruptive change, but rather an evolutionary process involving many steps. In this paper, an analysis of different dimensions of this transition process and their evolutionary steps is presented. Potential migration paths from current to future production architectures and resulting intermediate brownfield scenarios are identified and analyzed with a focus on their communication architectures.