Abstract:
Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) enhances traditional Ethernet with technologies such as high-precision time synchronization and time-aware shaping, delivering end-to-end deterministic data transmission services characterized by low latency, low jitter, and high reliability. It finds extensive applications in aerospace, industrial control, vehicle networks, and other scenarios. However, the inability of a large number of existing Ethernet end nodes to upgrade for TSN time synchronization has become a bottleneck restricting TSN deployment and application. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a TSN time synchronization method called FlyPTP. Its core idea lies in decoupling the time synchronization function from the inherent architecture of end nodes. By combining software deployed on end nodes with hardware installed on access switches, FlyPTP achieves platform-agnostic TSN time synchronization. The theoretical validity of the FlyPTP method is proven, and the hardware logic of FlyPTP and related software are developed based on FPGA. Experiments are designed to deploy FlyPTP on various heterogeneous end nodes. The results show that all tested end nodes can be deployed without modifying existing software and hardware, with a synchronization accuracy reaching 85ns. This verifies the capability of FlyPTP to achieve TSN time synchronization for heterogeneous end nodes without altering their existing architectures. By separating time synchronization functions from the complex and diverse hardware/software environments of end nodes, FlyPTP provides a flexible and scalable solution for upgrading traditional Ethernet to TSN, overcoming the limitations of hardware dependency and kernel modification in conventional methods. This not only reduces the technical threshold for TSN deployment but also ensures compatibility and performance consistency across different platforms, laying a solid foundation for the large-scale application of TSN in industrial internet and critical infrastructure scenarios.