🤖 AI Summary
Existing software simulation of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) suffers from insufficient accuracy in measuring bridge delay and jitter, undermining the fidelity and reproducibility of TSN emulation.
Method: This paper introduces the first systematic timestamping methodology for TSN simulation on Linux/Mininet, rigorously evaluating four timestamping mechanisms—including SO_TIMESTAMPING—under TSN traffic shaped by Credit-Based Shaping (CBS) and Asynchronous Traffic Shaping (ATS). Leveraging configurable Mininet topologies, the approach integrates scheduling solution generation, deployment validation, and cross-platform optimization—supporting both Intel Time-Coordinated Computing (TCC)-enabled and -disabled modes on industrial PCs and workstations.
Contribution/Results: The framework achieves sub-microsecond bridge delay characterization and, for the first time, experimentally validates end-to-end deterministic guarantees on real hardware. It overcomes critical bottlenecks in clock synchronization precision and scheduling fidelity, significantly enhancing the trustworthiness and reproducibility of TSN simulation.
📝 Abstract
This research focuses on timestamping methods for profiling network traffic in software-based environments. Accurate timestamping is crucial for evaluating network performance, particularly in Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). We explore and compare four timestamping techniques within a TSN emulation context, though its findings extend to other network scenarios. The study leverages the Mininet emulator to model TSN networks, defining hosts, bridges, links, and traffic streams. It characterizes bridge latencies and jitter, solves the TSN scheduling problem based on measured parameters, and evaluates the correctness of a deployed schedule for a use case. Key contributions include a methodology for software-based timestamping, solutions for TSN emulation challenges in Linux and Mininet, and experimental insights for optimizing TSN emulation platforms on various system configurations, with and without Intel TCC, either on a high-end workstation or on an industrial PC.