Lately, time-sensitive networking (TSN) has transitioned from academic literature to practical use in real-world settings. Businesses that wish to harness the benefits of this promising technology must grasp the demands of industry stakeholders and commence constructing TSN-capable systems. From even before the establishment of the IEEE TSN task force, Moxa has collaborated with industry affiliates to foster digitalization in the manufacturing domain, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0, along with all the essential technologies for industrial automation. Time-sensitive networking (TSN) emerges as a critical facilitator of industrial digitization applications where Moxa has already delivered significant contributions. Indeed, Moxa has forged partnerships with various industry stakeholders to construct TSN-capable systems and introduce the proven advantages of TSN to the factory floor through a multitude of technological advancements and practical applications.

Conventionally, the transmission, reception, and processing of substantial data volumes in industrial automation applications were fraught with challenges emanating from diverse equipment, interfaces, and protocols. TSN surmounts these obstacles by allowing time synchronization on the network, ensuring that all interconnected devices possess a shared time reference, enabling all data to be accessible simultaneously for specific tasks. These TSN-capable systems exhibit high reliability as their built-in bounded low latency, within a deterministic networking environment, boosts performance and security.

Content

Technological Attainments
Advancing the Technology
The Support Provided by TSN
Limitless Advantages
Preparing for TSN Utilization
Synopsis

Technological Attainments

From a technological perspective, Moxa collaborated with NXP to validate the exceptional reliability of the essential TSN redundancy protocol, 802.1 CB. Furthermore, Moxa’s partnership with Intel and Keysight has underscored the feasibility of wireless TSN networks in forthcoming scenarios.

Acknowledged Network Redundancy

To ensure a high degree of reliability, IEEE 802.1CB Frame Replication and Elimination for Reliability (FRER) function to dispatch duplicate copies of each frame through multiple disconnected paths, allowing proactive redundancy even in instances of partial network breakdown, ensuring seamless communication. During Taipei Automation 2022, Moxa collaborated with NXP Semiconductors N.V., a Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer, and port Industrial Automation GmbH to examine the reliability of an 802.1 CB-based ring topology utilizing Moxa switches to link NXP equipment. As engineers disconnected certain network cables to replicate network failures, the data packets controlling critical equipment continued to synchronize and function normally. Furthermore, this test illustrated that robust network redundancy aids in recovering from multiple failure points, not solely a single point of failure.

Unleashing Wireless Potential

A significant stride towards embedding TSN in industrial automation involves ensuring data transmission in wireless applications. Given that much industrial equipment is mobile, realizing true IIoT necessitates an expanded array of TSN wireless applications. In Taipei Automation 2021, Moxa, Intel Corporation, and port Industrial Automation GmbH devised a platform showcasing the industry’s foremost ready-to-deploy application-to-application TSN solution for instantaneous data transmission. Designed for compatibility with varied communication protocols, this innovative platform is versatile and scalable, thereby enabling the construction of next-generation smart manufacturing and logistics solutions, particularly when mobile devices are not only preferred but indispensable in real-world use cases. Wireless TSN unveils the complete potential of TSN by establishing a genuinely unified and high-performance network infrastructure accommodating all traffic types.

Advancing the Technology

Beyond demonstrating the technology’s efficacy, Moxa has also integrated TSN into several practical applications to assist businesses in achieving tangible commercial benefits.

Lowering Total Cost of Ownership in Wafer Manufacturing

In collaboration with ELS System Technology, a prominent Taiwanese lithography solution provider, Moxa efficiently integrated TSN into the wafer manufacturing process. The system entails incorporating machine vision into the wafer misalignment correction system. The TSN technology successfully merged a high-bandwidth video application with highly reliable on-demand motion control CC-Link IE TSN. The solution offered a stable motion control system, complete with machine vision, for the misalignment correction system.
Moxa’s TSN solution also caters to different traffic types with varying requirements and delivers precise motion control data about network traffic in real-time using the same open and standard network. Additionally, this TSN solution bolsters the network’s economic viability and diminishes the total cost of ownership (TCO) by ensuring the infrastructure is easy to maintain and expand.

Reducing Downtime Inconvenience with Video Component Logging

Real-time video surveillance is reputed for its data intensity and bandwidth consumption. TSN’s extreme reliability and bounded low latency pave the way for constructing a unified application to record and stream live video across a network. To assist the Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi Electric in enhancing the logging of all system components during visual inspections, Moxa devised a module capable of recording video streams, waveforms, and associated information, aiding users in accelerating troubleshooting activities when necessary. With no need to comb through various devices or networks, engineers now perform forensic examinations on a TSN-based integrated system harboring synchronized critical visual data, ensuring secure access, storage, and protection of said data.

The Support Provided by TSN

TSN serves as the linchpin of smart factory automation, given its deterministic, real-time communication that allows disparate equipment to seamlessly collaborate. As networks expand in magnitude and complexity, TSN enforces traffic management and prioritizes system resources to ensure timely delivery of critical data, thereby fortifying the network’s reliability and security. Subsequently, we will examine two case studies showcasing TSN’s capabilities and how Moxa collaborates with system integrators, machine manufacturers, and end-users to enhance returns with TSN.

Use Case 1: Machinery Manufacturer

In response to market demands for sophisticated, integrated, and highly automated machinery, machinery manufacturers endeavor to introduce machinery featuring inherent scalability, accelerated sensing, and intricate laser and machine control applications. Nonetheless,Various exclusive networks belonging to different elements necessitate seamless communication and integration for the purpose of achieving optimal performance. Moreover, operators will encounter difficulties in maintaining these networks, especially when the machinery is transported overseas and operator training is occasionally neglected.

Moxa introduced a cohesive TSN network to facilitate deterministic communication among cameras, sensors, and machine controls. The complete Gigabit managed switch from Moxa’s TSN-G5008 Series links multiple I/Os to the servo drivers and machine vision cameras. As Ethernet operates on a “first-in, first-served” basis, it was previously challenging to transmit crucial data over the same cable. However, with the standard Ethernet TSN infrastructure, traffic management now allows critical data to share networking resources and ensures the delivery of data packets. The switch is specifically designed to align manufacturing networks, such as those of machinery manufacturers, with TSN to leverage the advantages of Industry 4.0.

Scenario 2: System for Manufacturing Customized Products at Scale

A compact production cycle is advantageous for enterprises as efficiency results in reduced costs and increased adaptability. It enables businesses to cater to a dynamic market and offer personalized products, often with higher profit margins, such as commercially available products. For manufacturers, such efficiency and adaptability are only attainable when various systems—ranging from production to assembly lines to logistics—are connected on a unified network to enable swift implementation of changes and adjustments to the manufacturing and distribution processes.

In order to enable limited-run custom manufacturing, manufacturers can utilize Moxa’s TSN-G5004 and TSN-G5008 Series Ethernet switches to merge existing proprietary networks into a single TSN-ready network to enhance efficiency. Above all, manufacturers can achieve integration between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) to streamline the product manufacturing processes. Thus, adaptive production, customized manufacturing, and production optimization are enabled through the management of assets via a TSN-enabled network, ensuring efficient control throughout the manufacturing process.

A simplified network layout benefits operators as maintenance becomes simpler and more cost-effective. By managing a unified network instead of multiple networks with varying protocols and requirements, operators can streamline training. Additionally, cabling becomes more straightforward, contributing to cost savings on maintenance.

Discover more with our assortment of case studies

Innumerable Advantages

TSN brings efficiency, simplified management, and cost-effectiveness to the industrial automation realm. Its deterministic communication, whether wired or wireless, supports the high reliability needed in critical industrial systems. With TSN mandating a standard unified network for different devices, the convergence of IT and OT presents fewer nodes, streamlined cabling, and simplified maintenance. These benefits benefit a wide array of stakeholders—from machine manufacturers to system integrators to end-users.

Builders of Machinery

By employing TSN technology, machine manufacturers can leverage a competitive network structure that allows converging motion bus and information on the same cable. This streamlined architecture reduces the number of nodes, ultimately lowering costs and maintenance efforts. Furthermore, from a performance perspective, the control loop cycle time can be diminished, enabling control over more devices. Additionally, as TSN technology operates on a Gigabit network, the increased bandwidth is well-suited for future application integration.

Integrators of Systems

The consolidated TSN network simplifies network and automation architecture by reducing cabling and engineering efforts. By converging all proprietary networking technologies onto a single cable, TSN empowers controlled network planning and scaling, consequently reducing the total cost of ownership and simplifying maintenance efforts.

End-Users

Moreover, TSN harmonizes with existing networks, eliminating the need for added network gateways connecting different proprietary systems. TSN’s compatibility with standard networks facilitates streamlined data access, aiding the system in optimizing resources and efforts for end-users.

Compared to other existing networking technologies, TSN excels in prioritizing critical packets over non-critical yet bandwidth-intensive applications, thereby reducing overall system downtime.

Lastly, leveraging standard Ethernet technologies means the latest cybersecurity solutions tailored for Ethernet are accessible to TSN networks, offering enhanced protection and adaptability in an ever-evolving threat landscape.

Preparation for Embracing TSN Implementation

When considering implementing a TSN-compatible application, a thorough grasp of the existing application requirements and network topology is vital before selecting the most suitable protocol and configurations for the switches and end devices.

Let’s take an example that demands both PLC communications and image capture. This scenario necessitates transmitting two types of data to the same host computer. By utilizing an integrated network topology, it becomes apparent that the video stream travels from port 4 to port 1, whereas the controller dispatches the synchronization message to the master server through port 2 to port 1.

Safeguarding the control packet from the high-bandwidth video stream requires configuring the requisite protocols on the network, including time synchronization (802.1 AS) and time-aware shaper (802.1 Qbv) on the associated components and ports.
The control packet is dispatched in 1-second cycles, where 300 μs is allocated for cycle data, 200 μs for time synchronization data, and the remaining 500 μs is reserved for non-cyclic data. Each slot assigns the corresponding VLAN ID to ensure the cycle data remains unaffected.

Once the application behavior is understood, the final step is configuring the necessary settings on the Ethernet switch and end device.

Recap

For an extended period, Moxa has been dedicated to ensuring that TSN technologies fulfill their true potential and assist industry leaders in expediting their digital transformation within industrial automation. Through the use cases examined in this article, we trust you have gained a better insight into how Moxa collaborates with dependable partners and reputable stakeholders in delivering future-proof TSN solutions to clients at varying stages of their digital transformation journey. Moxa’s committed team stands ready to engage with you on applications where TSN technologies can bring about considerable improvements. To delve deeper into the path towards intelligent manufacturing and TSN, please visit our TSN microsite.