Time-sensitive networking (TSN) can help standardize deterministic Ethernet across industrial automation. The deterministic guarantee of TSN is based on network resource scheduling in the unit of flow. However, the state-of-the-art TSN single flow scheduling scheme cannot meet the coordinated scheduling requirements of multiple data flows in advanced industrial applications (e.g., control and safety applications). In this article, we propose a TSN chain flow abstraction, TC-Flow, for a coordinated multiple-flow scheduling model in industrial control and safety applications. Based on the proposed TC-Flow model, we design an offline TC-Flow scheduling algorithm using integer linear programming and an online heuristic TC-Flow scheduling algorithm to handle network dynamics. To deploy the proposed TC-Flow model and scheduling algorithms in the TSN, we design a CF-TSN network architecture that is compatible with the existing TSN single-flow scheduling scheme. Finally, we implement the proposed CF-TSN architecture and TC-Flow scheduling algorithms in real-world network environments. Experimental results show that the proposed scheduling algorithms can increase the number of schedulable flows by 26 percent compared to the state-of-the-art TSN scheduling benchmark.

中文翻译：

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TC-Flow：时间敏感网络中高级工业应用的链式流调度

时间敏感网络 (TSN) 可以帮助标准化工业自动化中的确定性以太网。TSN的确定性保证是基于以流为单位的网络资源调度。然而，现有技术的TSN单流调度方案不能满足高级工业应用（例如控制和安全应用）中多数据流的协调调度要求。在本文中，我们提出了一种 TSN 链流抽象 TC-Flow，用于工业控制和安全应用中的协调多流调度模型。基于所提出的 TC-Flow 模型，我们设计了一种使用整数线性规划的离线 TC-Flow 调度算法和一种在线启发式 TC-Flow 调度算法来处理网络动态。为了在 TSN 中部署提出的 TC-Flow 模型和调度算法，我们设计了一个兼容现有TSN单流调度方案的CF-TSN网络架构。最后，我们在现实世界的网络环境中实现了所提出的 CF-TSN 架构和 TC-Flow 调度算法。实验结果表明，与最先进的 TSN 调度基准相比，所提出的调度算法可以将可调度流的数量增加 26%。