Configuration Solution for TSN-based Industrial Networks utilizing SDN and OPC UA

Increasing customization and dynamically allocated services for data analytics and production optimisation are forcing the industrial networks of the future to become more flexible and adaptive. Moreover, future converged networks require a higher degree of scalability and performance. Three technologies are currently under special observation for solving this issue: Time-Sensitive Networking, Software-defined Networking and OPC UA.This paper combines these three technologies into one network architecture. This architecture shows that it is possible to configure time-sensitive traffic streams by leveraging the Time-Sensitive Networking methods for synchronisation and Time Aware Shaping in combination with forwarding methods coming from Software-defined Networking. OPC UA is utilized as the link for industrial applications to interact with the network management and transmit their demands on the network service. Additionally, OPC UA serves as the data exchange technology among industrial applications by utilizing OPC UA PubSub and leveraging Quality-of-Service queues according Time-Sensitive Networking standards.It can be shown that the combination is a reasonable solution and a promising field for further investigation.