One key to the expanded availability of Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) devices for industrial manufacturing and processing operations is access to registered testing facilities where product developers can certify their products’ TSN capabilities. Access to such facilities is expanding with the announcement that Avnu Alliance has launched globally scaled testing capabilities and a comprehensive update of its TSN certification testing procedures at newly authorized, commercial test houses around the world.
These new registered test facilities (RTF) are located at Allion in Taipei City, Taiwan; Excelfore in Tokyo, Japan; and Granite River Labs in Santa Clara, Calif., and Karlsruhe, Germany.
According to the Avnu Alliance, “These well-recognized, globally dispersed test labs will lower shipping times, offer competitive pricing models, and streamline the process for members seeking to certify products and make communications between testing sites and vendors seamless. These additional test sites and locations give Avnu Alliance greater ability to scale testing capacity to meet demand, while also allowing device manufacturers to enter products into testing with less lead time prior to release.”
Avnu provides test plans and programs to help manufacturers implementing TSN ensure interoperability and demonstrate it via Anvu’s certification programs.
Though this announcement is directed at product developers including TSN capabilities in their products, the result for end users across industry is that more TSN-capable products will be coming to market faster. This will enable wider implementation of TSN networking across industry.
If you’re not aware of TSN, it is an IEEE 802.1 standard that essentially makes standard Ethernet deterministic by blocking non-time-sensitive traffic during specific time-windows to ensure that the control-specific traffic on the network can achieve deterministic transfer times on the order of tens of microseconds and time synchronization between nodes at tens of nanoseconds.
“As a part of standard networking technology, TSN is built and deployed around the world,” says Greg Schlechter, president of the Avnu Alliance. “Avnu recognized that, for device certification to keep pace with innovation, we needed to expand our testing capabilities and global footprint to increase accessibility, enable the growth of both test programs and manufacturers, and in general support the diversity of the growing TSN ecosystem.”
To streamline this new testing and certification program, Avnu has launched a new testing portal and certification management system (CMS). Designed and maintained by experienced certification management professionals, the new CMS provides members with real-time visibility into the testing process and the ability to track device progress and timelines, said Avnu.
This new certification website will also feature a new product registry with a database showing all products currently Certified by Avnu. Advanced filtering capabilities allow end users to search for products to specify and design into their systems.
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