Electricity and Control April 2021

INDUSTRY 4.0 + IIOT

Can TSN improve your business? Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is an innovative technology that can help companies implement Industry 4.0 applications by improving industrial Ethernet standards. By means of key additions to these standards,TSN supports determinism and network convergence – seen as two essential elements of the highly competitive, connected industries of the future. John Browett, General Manager at CLPA Europe, outlines some of the key improvements thatTSN can deliver in an enterprise.

T he automation marketplace is a symbiosis of end users, who specify projects to machine builders, who in turn look for vendors who can offer products and solutions that meet these specifications. TSN is well placed to deliver benefits to all market participants. Let’s rewind – what is TSN? TSN (Time Sensitive Networking) is a technology that sits at Layer 2 – the Data Link layer of the seven-level OSI model of computer networking – to expand the capabilities of

tems and their customers understand the value of the data produced in their factories and to gain the benefits of this they require seamless access to that data. Hence the kind of trans- parency required by Industry 4.0 applications is becoming the preferred approach to reaching a solution. Taking terabytes of data from the shop floor and turning them into useful information is all part of the strategy to ad- dress Industry 4.0. But more importantly, it is being able to really solve the customers’ problems as we look at a complete solution-based architecture focused on IT/OT convergence and the ability to take data from the factory floor, provide seamless integration and convert it into information accessible to enterprise-wide applications. The white paper looks into these challenges in depth and the role of TSN in addressing them. It makes the case for adopting TSN now with the benefits it brings to automation vendors and end users. TSN supports the convergence of OT and IT data streams. This allows for simpler network architecture and machine design. current Ethernet networks. More precisely, this innovation is described by the IEEE 802.1 set of Ethernet sub-standards and focuses on delivering determinism and convergence of multiple data traffic streams on one network. Two particularly important TSN sub-standards that provide such abilities are aligned with IEEE 802.1 AS and IEEE 802.1 Qbv. The first ensures that all devices on a network are synchronised, providing the basis for determinism. Once

Time-Sensitive Networking – The Case for Action Now The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) has developed a white paper which presents the business benefits of TSN and CC-Link IE TSN, in more detail. The white paper, titled Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) – The Case for Action Now can be downloaded from the website. In the introduction it sets out the vision of the connected Smart Factory. Globally, industry is facing a common set of challenges and end users are looking to automation vendors to deliver sys- tems and technologies that will address them. One obstacle to overcoming these challenges is the inabil- ity of existing industrial network systems to share information between different technologies. This limitation leads to data ‘is- lands’, which prevent information from being shared effectively. The key to resolving this problem is better access to in- formation. Manufacturers of industrial automation control sys-

4 Electricity + Control APRIL 2021