SbDN: Source-based TSN-Grade Deterministic Networking using Commodity Switches
2026-08-17 • Networking and Internet Architecture
Networking and Internet Architecture
AI summaryⓘ
The authors present SbDN, a system that guarantees fast and reliable data delivery for critical applications like cars and airplanes using regular Ethernet switches instead of expensive specialized ones. They centralize the scheduling work in a controller and handle all configurations at the source devices, keeping switches simple. They introduce two ways to ensure deadlines are met: one that strictly separates traffic timing and another that uses priority queues, both proven to work reliably. Tests show SbDN works well and faster than standard methods while being cheaper and flexible for changes during use.
Deterministic NetworkingTime-Sensitive Networking (TSN)end-to-end latencyEthernet switchesTemporal Network PartitioningTraffic Prioritizationcentralized controllertime-critical flowsFIFO switchesstrict-priority queuing
Authors
Mohammadparsa Karimi, Majid Nabi, Andrew Nelson, Kees Goossens, Twan Basten
Abstract
Deterministic networking is essential for safety-critical applications in automotive, industrial, and aerospace systems, where bounded end-to-end latency must be guaranteed for time-critical traffic. Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) provides the mechanisms to achieve such guarantees, but its deployment requires expensive TSN-capable switches at every hop and complex per-switch configuration that hinders runtime reconfiguration. This paper presents SbDN, a Multi-Agent Source-based architecture that achieves TSN-grade determinism using commodity Ethernet switches. SbDN moves all scheduling intelligence to a centralized controller composed of three cooperating agents and enforces the computed configurations exclusively at the source endpoints, leaving switches as simple forwarding elements. We propose two methods: Temporal Network Partitioning (TNP), which provides strict temporal isolation on pure FIFO switches, and Traffic Prioritization (TP), which leverages strict-priority queuing at switches to enable work-conserving best-effort traffic. Both methods are formally proven to guarantee that all admitted time-critical flows meet their end-to-end deadlines. Evaluation across 40 benchmark configurations on two topologies shows that TNP and TP achieve 100\% admission of time-critical traffic in every scenario, with scheduling times in the low-millisecond range suitable for safe runtime reconfiguration. Compared to a standard TSN baseline, SbDN delivers superior time-critical latency at a fraction of the switch infrastructure cost, while offering competitive best-effort throughput through the choice between the two methods.