Towards the Integration and Convergence Between 5G and TSN Technologies and Architectures for Industrial Communications: A Survey

Communication networks are in constant evolution to adapt to the ever-changing demands of modern services and applications. On the one hand, technologies within the framework of the fifth generation of communication networks (5G), currently in a steady course towards 6G, are being designed with unprecedented performance and flexibility capabilities to empower the digital transformation of heterogeneous vertical industries. On the other hand, Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is being developed to enable converged network infrastructures able to satisfy the most stringent communication requirements in regards to bounded low latency and reliability. In verticals such as manufacturing, a joint usage of 5G and TSN is very promising to enable revolutionary use cases that coexist with the constraints imposed by industrial communications and systems. In this paper, we exhaustively survey the technology landscape concerning the integration between 5G and TSN technologies, including the perspectives of both industry and academia. In the first part of this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of relevant standards and outcomes from industry initiatives. We first examine the capabilities provided by TSN and their application to industrial communications. Likewise, we contextualize the 5G architecture and its key enabling technologies, and later provide a comprehensive review of the architecture and mechanisms to enable the integration between TSN and 5G. In the second part of this paper, we extensively survey the state of the art from academic literature concerning proposals that contribute to enabling, improving, and/or demonstrating different aspects of the integration or interworking between 5G and TSN technologies.