This week SoC-e TSN Team is again taking part in the IIC TSN Testbed in Stuttgart, Germany. Last IIC TSN interoperability event was celebrated only four months ago in Erbach. However, due to the multiple features involved in TSN, it is necessary accelerating the technical tests among technology providers to validate the releases provided to the end-customers. In the same way, these events help to move forward in the definition in common network configuration schemes.
In this sense, one of the new technical features that SoC-e Team will test this week is related with cybersecurity. Security and TSN is a very important topic. The fully integration of OT/IT networks on a Factory Backbone will difficult applying the traditional security layered segmentation in the Industry. One valuable security mechanism is integrating frame limiting and filtering capabilities in each TSN node of the network. This features will help to mitigate unintentional and intentional malfunctions in the network, like disruptive transmissions, avoiding blocking the communication.
These feature are described in P802.1 Qci, and they are supported in the new release of MTSN IP. This standard includes procedures and managed objects for a bridge to perform frame counting, filtering, policing, and service class selection for a frame based on the particular data stream to which the frame belongs, and a synchronized cyclic time schedule.
Datarate filtering at ingress ports is a demanded feature for Ethernet switches used in critical systems. Indeed, SoC-e MES IP supports it. However, validating these elements in the context of TSN requires this action of attending the inter-operability events to ensure that each vendor has interpreted the standard in a compatible way and the solution takes into account the management layer defined for TSN.
IIC TSN Interoperability Tests in Stuttgart, July 2018.