The Internet of Things (IoT) is a major factor in nearly every industry imaginable. And, as it continues to grow, it will continue to have a greater impact on the way we work and live. One industry seeing major progress in this area is automotive. Soon, the automotive Ethernet will internally connect electronics within the vehicle and externally connect the vehicle to the IoT.

That connection brings a new round of safety and latency requirements, and, in response to those requirements, a new set of open standards is being developed. This set of open standards, referred to as Time Sensitive Networking (TSN), is designed to improve the reliability, timing, redundancy, and failure detection ability of the Ethernet within the vehicle.

The TSN Ethernet substandards were defined by the TSN Task Force of the IEEE, supporters of the OpenStand Principles. These standards also enable deterministic real-time communication over the Ethernet, critical to connected vehicles. According to a recent TTTech article, “TSN achieves determinism over Ethernet by using time synchronization and a schedule which is shared between network components. By defining queues based on time, TSN ensures a bounded maximum latency for schedule traffic through switched networks. This means that in a TSN network, latency of critical scheduled communication is guaranteed.”

For the automotive industry, the open standards of the TSN are vital to the success of automotive Ethernet enablement, improving reliability and redundancy. The Ethernet will enable the progression of more sophisticated automotive applications, the pinnacle of which are functions which will enable truly autonomous driving.

An article from Design & Reuse, A Look at New Open Standards to Improve Reliability and Redundancy of Automotive Ethernet, points out that more functionality will mean more requirements for automotive Ethernet. “The increasing number of components, including processors, cameras, and sensors such as radars, not only increases the bandwidth required but also require time-critical data to be transferred reliably. This requires provisions for deterministic and low-latency transmission, especially for mission-critical controls.” The standards developed to ensure those provisions will also ensure reliable and timely inter-operation between all the components in an automobile.

By promoting transparency, collective empowerment, and general cooperation – components of the Modern Paradigm of Standards – IEEE was able to develop TSN in a way that will be an ongoing benefit to the enablement of the automotive Ethernet. As we continue to leverage open standards across industries, the true value of IoT and open standards will only become clearer.

The value open standards provide to business and our lives will only continue to grow with your support. Please Sign your name and stand with us if you hold to our OpenStand Principles.