A comparison of fault-tolerance concepts for IEEE 802.1 Time Sensitive Networks (TSN)

With Audio and Video Bridging (AVB), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) AVB task group introduced Real-Time capabilities to Ethernet based on IEEE 802 Standards. As AVB was conceived with a focus on home and professional audio and video transmissions, some mandatory aspects for the application in industrial control networks are not covered. Under the name of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), second generation AVB standards are being developed to address the requirements of industrial automation and control networks, and automotive in-vehicle networks. One of the mandatory requirements addressed by TSN is a redundancy feature to achieve fault tolerance. This paper compares two methods for implementing fault-tolerant networks with the stream registration mechanisms that are planned for TSN.