Many industrial real-time applications in various domains, e.g., automotive, industrial automation, industrial IoT, and industry 4.0, require ultra-low end-to-end network latency, often in the order of 10 milliseconds or less. The IEEE 802.1 time-sensitive networking (TSN) is a set of standards that supports the required low-latency wired communication with ultra-low jitter. The flexibility of such a wired connection can be increased if it is integrated with a mobile wireless network. The fifth generation of cellular networks (5G) is capable of supporting the required levels of network latency with the Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) service. To fully utilize the potential of these two technologies (TSN and 5G) in industrial applications, seamless integration of the TSN wired-based network with the 5G wireless-based network is needed. In this article, we provide a comprehensive and well-structured snapshot of the existing research on TSN-5G integration. In this regard, we present the planning, execution, and analysis results of the systematic review. We also identify the trends, technical characteristics, and potential gaps in the state of the art, thus highlighting future research directions in the integration of TSN and 5G communication technologies. We notice that 73% of the primary studies address the time synchronization in the integration of TSN and 5G technologies, introducing approaches with an accuracy starting from the levels of hundred nanoseconds to one microsecond. Majority of primary studies aim at optimizing communication latency in their approach, which is a key quality attribute in automotive and industrial automation applications today.

Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) is a set of IEEE standards based on switched Ethernet that aim at meeting high-bandwidth and low-latency requirements in wired communication. TSN implementations typically do not support integration of wireless networks, which limits their applicability to many industrial applications that need both wired and wire-less communication. The development of 5G and its promised Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) in-tegrated with TSN would offer a promising solution to meet the bandwidth, latency and reliability requirements in these industrial applications. In order to support such an integration, we propose a technique to translate the traffic between TSN and 5G communication technologies. As a proof of concept, we implement the translation technique in a well-known TSN simulator, namely NeSTiNg, that is based on the OMNeT ++ tool. Furthermore, we evaluate the proposed technique using an automotive industrial use case. 

This paper explores the integration of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) with 5G cellular networks to support high-bandwidth and low-latency end-to-end communication in networked embedded systems. Integrating TSN with 5G has the potential to support predictable and deterministic end-to-end communication, as well as to significantly enhance scalability, particularly in industrial automation, by providing flexibility, efficiency, and responsiveness. To ensure smooth integration while preserving TSN's Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, effective traffic translation and forwarding within the network are crucial. In this regard, this paper addresses key challenges related to traffic translation, QoS implementation, and latency in both TSN and private 5G networks on a realistic scenario. Through experiments, measurements, and evaluation, this paper thoroughly assesses latency and network capabilities in the integrated networks. Understanding these metrics is essential for devising effective integration strategies. Our findings indicate that it is possible to achieve latencies under 20 ms in an integrated TSN-5G network, given our specific configuration of a private 5G setup with a channel bandwidth of 40 MHz. We also identify an urgent need for the implementation of a proper QoS mechanism in the Open Air Interface software to enable the prioritization of high-critical data transmission.

Integrating wired Ethernet networks, such as Time-Sensitive Networks (TSN), to 5G cellular network requires a flow management technique to efficiently map TSN traffic to 5G Quality-of-Service (QoS) flows. The 3GPP Release 16 provides a set of predefined QoS characteristics, such as priority level, packet delay budget, and maximum data burst volume, which can be used for the 5G QoS flows. Within this context, mapping TSN traffic flows to 5G QoS flows in an integrated TSN-5G network is of paramount importance as the mapping can significantly impact on the end-to-end QoS in the integrated network. In this paper, we present a novel and efficient mapping algorithm to map different TSN traffic flows to 5G QoS flows. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first QoS-aware mapping algorithm based on the application constraints used to exchange flows between TSN and 5G network domains. We evaluate the proposed mapping algorithm on synthetic scenarios with random sets of constraints on deadline, jitter, bandwidth, and packet loss rate. The evaluation results show that the proposed mapping algorithm can fulfill over 90% of the applications' constraints.

The integration of advanced technologies such as cyber-physical systems (CPS), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) is paving the way for a broad spectrum of new use cases and applications. Many of these applications demand highly reliable and deterministic communication. Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is a set of standards that supports low-latency communication with ultra-low jitter for wired on-board communication. To overcome the limitations of wired connections, it is of paramount importance to integrate TSN with a wireless network. The fifth generation of cellular networks (5G) stands out as a potential candidate when it comes to meeting the real-time requirements of time-sensitive applications. However, the integration of TSN with the 5G network introduces new challenges regarding the scheduling of 5G radio resources for the transmission of real-time TSN flows under time-variant 5G channel characteristics. In this paper, we propose a flow-based scheduling approach to handle the allocation of 5G radio resources for the uplink transmission of TSN flows with various timing and reliability constraints. Moreover, as the 5G radio resources are limited, we propose an approach to efficiently utilize these resources while achieving a feasible schedule for TSN flows with stringent timing constraints.