Time-Sensitive Networking: the factory's traffic cop

Wireless technologies can make production halls more efficient and more dynamic, but this involves a huge challenge: All data must arrive in the right place at the right time. Could Time-Sensitive Networking provide a breakthrough in this area?

www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en.html, Apr. 09, 2025 – 

When you step inside a factory building, you enter a world that operates according to its own specific rules: strict production processes, rigorous quality control, modern machinery, and a highly specialized workforce. One cog engages with the other, and one action determines the next – always with a view to speeding up production. For example, with conveyor belts for transporting components, a camera hangs above the belt and casts a critical eye over every object that passes. If the camera spots a defect, a jet of compressed air is immediately activated to eject the flawed component into a waste bin. This time, however, something goes wrong: The data are not transmitted in time, the jet of compressed air fires into thin air, and the belt must be stopped. All it takes is one brief moment to bring this world, with all of its specific rules, to a standstill.

Production downtimes of this kind are costly. In response, manufacturing and industrial companies are always looking for a decisive boost in efficiency that allows the cogs to engage more effectively – and this search quickly leads them to the field of wireless communication. After all, in contrast to the wired connections that have dominated until now, wireless communication carries significantly lower maintenance and repair costs. What’s more, wireless technologies can reach into the most distant corners of a production hall, allowing the integration of mobile elements such as automated mobile robots (AMRs) or automated guided vehicles (AGVs) that move through a factory autonomously and transport materials. Suddenly, there is a hint of dynamism in the otherwise rigid processes of industrial communication, speeding up production and making it more flexible. As always, however: with great opportunities come great challenges.

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