Glossary · Industrial communication
Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN)
Also known as: TSN
German: Zeitsensitive Vernetzung (TSN)
In networking, Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is a set of IEEE 802.1 standards that add deterministic behavior to standard Ethernet, including time synchronization, scheduled traffic, frame preemption, bandwidth reservation and seamless redundancy. IEC/IEEE 60802 defines a TSN profile for industrial automation.
- Industrial communication
- Standards
In one sentence
TSN is a set of IEEE 802.1 standards that add time synchronization, scheduling and reservation to Ethernet for deterministic traffic.
Example
On one TSN network, motion control traffic runs in scheduled time slots every 500 microseconds while camera images and IT traffic use the remaining bandwidth.
How it applies
- Engineering: TSN lets real-time control traffic share a network with other traffic while keeping bounded latency. It needs TSN-capable switches and end devices, and a configuration of streams and schedules (centralized or distributed).
- Ecosystems: PROFINET, CC-Link IE TSN, EtherNet/IP and OPC UA over TSN use or are adopting TSN. TSN is a network layer technology; it doesn't define application data or device profiles.
- Maturity: Individual features and profiles are implemented to different degrees in products. Engineers verify which TSN standards a device supports rather than relying on the TSN label.
- Documentation: The documentation team lists the supported IEEE 802.1 standards and profiles, time synchronization method and configuration model.
TSN vs. QoS
Classic Quality of service (QoS) prioritizes frames but gives no timing guarantee under load. TSN adds synchronized time and scheduling, so worst-case latency can be bounded.