Open source software for experimentation

Ingrid Moerman: "We have decided to make some of the basic functionalities of Openwifi available as open source software."

© Imec

Ingrid Moerman: "To accelerate the research and commercial adoption of wireless TSNs, we have decided to make some of the basic functionalities of Openwifi available as open source software. This should give application developers and chip manufacturers from all over the world the opportunity to experiment with Openwifi."

Openwifi is already doing well on Github - the world's largest open source software development platform - where it ranks in the top 4 most popular FPGA contributions and has already been downloaded over 200 times.

Jeroen Hoebeke: "We enable companies to test a range of Wi-Fi-based TSN functions - independent of manufacturer-specific implementations and chipsets."

© Imec

Jeroen Hoebeke: "It is our intention to give industrial partners a unique opportunity to test their applications on Openwifi and evaluate whether these applications are compatible with the time-critical Wi-Fi solutions of tomorrow. To give an example: Televic, a Belgian provider of specialized communication solutions, has already shown interest in Openwifi to test one of its low-latency audio streaming systems."

"We are enabling these companies to test a range of Wi-Fi-based TSN features - independent of vendor-specific implementations and chipsets - that are not yet commercially available. This should give them a significant competitive advantage," he says.

"In addition, we are able to enrich Wi-Fi packets with real-time network and end-to-end monitoring information. This allows us to determine - as the packets travel through the network - how a particular Wi-Fi network is performing. We measure what actually happens to a Wi-Fi packet without having to send additional traffic through the network. This makes it much easier to find out where problems originate. You could also use this input to reconfigure the network or to check whether the agreed quality of service is being met. This is actually a technique that has been used in data centers for some time, but we are the first to implement this function in a wireless network," summarizes Hoebeke.

The first steps have been taken

Wim Van Daele is part of the Imec Science Communication Team.

© Imec

So when will factories be able to use wireless TSNs? Ingrid Moerman and Jeroen Hoebeke are in complete agreement: not yet.

"We will gradually see TSN-based functions in wireless networks over the next few years, but this will happen step by step. First, the commercial chips that support these functions must be developed; only then can the applications follow. In the meantime, however, it will be interesting to see how 5G and Wi-Fi will further address the need for wireless TSNs. What is already clear is that both see clear added value in supporting time-critical applications," they say.

Competition or symbiosis?

"Will TSN or 5G prevail?" is a frequently asked question. Given the way the technologies are presented and marketed, it is hardly surprising that many sense a technology war. Deterministic Wi-Fi now seems to have entered the fray. But does this competition even exist?

There is certainly a certain overlap in the potential market, especially for wireless technologies, but from the user's point of view, the technologies should be seen as complementary components of the convergent network of the future. A look at the technological details reveals that TSN in particular is not 'either or', but is always an integral part of real-time wireless solutions. With Wi-Fi, this is quite obvious due to the same family of standards. With 5G, it is worth taking a closer look behind the scenes of 'Ultra Reliable Low-Latency Communication' to realize that from an endpoint perspective, it is a TSN network.

A look at the technologies for industrial communication in terms of deterministic properties such as synchronization accuracy and latency, environmental conditions, complexity, flexibility and costs suggests that we will see a similar division of applications in the medium term as is the case today in the IT environment.

It is crucial for the success of all technologies that they function together as a convergent real-time network and can be used efficiently by the user. While many of the open points within the individual technologies are already at a very advanced stage of development, the major challenges of convergence lie ahead of us in the near future. But here, too, a certain optimism is appropriate: even if not too much of it can be seen on the big stages so far, information about very promising developments and results is often already available at relevant conferences such as the TSN/A Conference on September 29 and 30, 2021, as well as in discussions with the companies involved.

Further information

Openwifi is one of the results of the ORCA project, which was supported by the European Horizon2020 program.

An Openwifi evaluation kit with a complete TSN Wi-Fi stack and the necessary support is currently under development. The evaluation kit will significantly lower the threshold for organizations to evaluate the benefits of time-sensitive Wi-Fi. More information about [email protected].

The Openwifi Linux driver and software can be downloaded here (Linux mac80211 compatible full-stack IEEE802.11/Wi-Fi FPGA design based on SDR).

Using the (remote) IDLab test infrastructure of imec, the University of Antwerp and the University of Ghent, all possible radio technologies can be put to the test - from Wi-Fi to 4G, 5G and even future 6G radio architectures based on distributed Massive MIMO.