EMBEDDED TECHNOLOGY issue.
To understand the advantages of TSN over standard Ethernet, it is helpful to think of them as road systems. Standard Ethernet is like a public highway where congested, whereas TSN is like a highway with dedicated, synchronised lanes for emergency vehicles that always arrive on time.
With TSN, all devices are synchronised to within sub-microsecond accuracy. This to move in perfect unison, which would be impossible with standard Ethernet. The main advantage of TSN is that it allows wire. As time-sensitive data is protected by scheduled slots, “noisy” IT data cannot interfere.
needs specialised, often costly, hardware.
EtherCAT
While these protocols arguably still have a role to play in robotics, EtherCAT has been developed to solve many of the problems associated with them and, with its
optimisation for deterministic and real-time communication, is in a leading position for robotics applications.
Like Ethernet, EtherCAT delivers high transmission speeds, but avoids the risk of packet collisions through its designation of a single MainDevice node, which dictates when packets are transmitted. Latency is also further reduced by allowing subordinate nodes to both read and insert data into the same frame of a telegram while it is still moving. Its use of a distributed clock mechanism enables precise time
synchronisation among all SubDevices, with jitter typically sub-1μs (and often sub-100ns). supporting line, ring, tree, star and physical structure of robots and the need to integrate sensors and tools and delivers tight integration for real-time, closed-loop motor control.
The result is a system architecture designed to meet the demands of today’s robots while leveraging open network standards such as EtherCAT for future scalability.
WE TALK IOT: THE PODCAST FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
Exploring best practise use cases and formulas for success
WE TALK IOT
The Internet of Things Business Podcast
APRIL 2026 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS
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