A Precise Synchronization Method for Future Wireless TSN Networks

Time-sensitive networking (TSN) is the most promising time-deterministic wired communication approach for industrial applications. To extend TSN to "IEEE 802.11" wireless networks, two challenging problems must be solved: synchronization and scheduling. This article is focused on the first one. Even though a few solutions already meet the required synchronization accuracies, they are built on expensive hardware that is not suited for mass market products. While next Wi-Fi generation might support the required functionalities, this article proposes a novel method that makes high-precision wireless synchronization using commercial low-cost components possible. With the proposed solution, a standard deviation of synchronization error of less than 500 ns can be achieved for many use cases and system loads on both CPU and network. This performance is comparable to modern wired real-time field buses, which makes the developed method a significant contribution for the extension of the TSN protocol to the wireless domain.