RAP Extensions for the Hybrid Configuration Model

Modern applications in industrial automation rely on a deterministic network service, i.e., low latency, high reliability, and network convergence. Therefore, the IEEE 802.1 TSN Task Group introduces Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). Besides mechanisms for traffic shaping, time synchronization, and reliability, TSN introduces three different configuration models for resource reservation: the fully distributed, the fully centralized, and the centralized network/distributed (hybrid) user model. Furthermore, IEEE P802.1Qdd specifies the Resource Allocation Protocol (RAP) to enable resource reservation for TSN streams in the fully distributed model. In this paper, we give an introduction to RAP, and propose extensions to RAP for the use in the hybrid configuration model. Additionally, we implement a prototype which is published under an open-source license.