RTL-210 · Real-Time Systems · Advanced
Industrial Fieldbus & TSN — full syllabus
Deterministic networking for industrial systems: EtherCAT, PROFINET and Time-Sensitive Networking.
Who this course is for
Engineers designing deterministic networking for industrial systems — choosing between fieldbus protocols and TSN, and responsible for proving the end-to-end timing.
Prerequisites
- Networking fundamentals: Ethernet, switching, IP
- Real-time Linux basics at the RTL-101/110 level
- C programming for the master-stack exercises
Course outline
Day 1 — The fieldbus landscape
- The fieldbus landscape: EtherCAT, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, Modbus and the CAN-based family
- What each protocol guarantees: cycle time, jitter, synchronisation
- Selection criteria: topology, device availability, master licensing, Linux support
- How a fieldbus cycle interacts with the host scheduler
- Mapping application timing requirements onto a protocol choice
Day 2 — EtherCAT in depth
- EtherCAT mechanics: processing on the fly, frame structure, working counter
- Distributed clocks and what they actually synchronise
- The IgH EtherCAT master on Linux: kernel module vs userspace operation
- The application interface: process data, PDO mapping and cycle configuration
- Diagnosing a degraded bus: wire faults, lost frames, clock drift
Day 3 — TSN and clock synchronisation
- The TSN standards that matter: 802.1AS time sync, Qbv time-aware shaper, Qbu frame preemption
- What is usable on Linux today and what remains vendor-specific
- PTP with linuxptp: ptp4l, phc2sys and hardware timestamping
- Configuring Qbv schedules with tc taprio on supported hardware
- Measuring and validating end-to-end determinism across the network
Hands-on labs
- Lab: Bring up an EtherCAT master against a slave set; map process data and run a 1 ms cycle
- Lab: Measure EtherCAT cycle jitter from the master and from the wire, and explain the difference
- Lab: Synchronise clocks across machines with ptp4l and phc2sys; measure the offset distribution
- Lab: Configure a Qbv schedule with tc taprio and verify time-gated behaviour with a traffic capture
- Lab: Inject interference traffic and measure its effect on a protected RT stream with and without TSN scheduling
Capstone project
Design and validate the networking for a small production cell: select and justify a fieldbus for the device tier, stand up an EtherCAT master running a cyclic application, synchronise the cell's clocks with PTP, and configure TSN scheduling on the inter-cell link — then produce an end-to-end determinism report with measured cycle jitter, clock offset distributions and the residual failure modes your design does not cover.
What you leave with
- A working EtherCAT master setup you configured yourself
- Fieldbus selection reasoning tied to timing guarantees
- PTP deployment skills with measured clock accuracy
- A realistic map of which TSN features are deployable on Linux today
- An end-to-end determinism validation method
Upcoming dates
| Dates | Where | Seats | Early bird | Regular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Nov – 10 Nov 20263 full days | RiyadhIn person · KAFD Conference Centre | 5 of 14 | SAR 8,100until 9 Oct | ||
| 15 Nov – 17 Nov 20263 full days | Kuwait CityIn person · Al Hamra Tower | 10 of 14 | KWD 670until 16 Oct | ||
| 15 Nov – 17 Nov 20263 full days | MuscatIn person · Knowledge Oasis Muscat | 5 of 14 | OMR 830until 16 Oct | ||
| 22 Nov – 29 Nov 20266 half-days | Gulf bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 GMT+3 | 17 of 20 | US$1,580until 23 Oct | ||
| 23 Nov – 25 Nov 20263 full days | OttawaIn person · Kanata North Tech Park | 10 of 14 | CAD 2,930until 24 Oct | ||
| 30 Nov – 2 Dec 20263 full days | TorontoIn person · MaRS Discovery District | 5 of 14 | CAD 2,930until 31 Oct | ||
| 30 Nov – 2 Dec 20263 full days | LondonIn person · Shoreditch Works | 10 of 14 | GBP 1,680until 31 Oct | ||
| 30 Nov – 7 Dec 20266 half-days | Europe bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 CET | 6 of 20 | US$1,580until 31 Oct | ||
| 30 Nov – 7 Dec 20266 half-days | Americas bandLive online · 13:00–17:00 ET | 11 of 20 | US$1,580until 31 Oct | ||
| 7 Dec – 9 Dec 20263 full days | BerlinIn person · Factory Görlitzer Park | 5 of 14 | EUR 1,990until 7 Nov |
Book a seat, or bring this course to your team
Seats can be reserved online; private delivery runs on-site or live online, adapted to your stack.
Questions about fit or prerequisites? Email hello@kernelsystems.academy. To save this syllabus, print this page to PDF from your browser.