SDAA410 June   2026 AM2611 , AM2612 , AM2612-Q1 , AM2631 , AM2631-Q1 , AM2632 , AM2632-Q1 , AM2634 , AM2634-Q1 , AM263P2 , AM263P2-Q1 , AM263P4 , AM263P4-Q1

 

  1.   1
  2.   Abstract
  3.   Trademarks
  4. 1Introduction
    1. 1.1 The Challenge of Determinism in Robotics
    2. 1.2 Why standard ethernet fails for real-time communication
      1. 1.2.1 Head-of-Line Blocking
      2. 1.2.2 Lack of Time Synchronization
      3. 1.2.3 No Traffic Scheduling
    3. 1.3 Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) based proposed solution
      1. 1.3.1 What is TSN?
      2. 1.3.2 IEEE 1588 (802.1AS gPTP - generalized Precision Time Protocol)
      3. 1.3.3 IEEE 802.1Q (VLAN)
      4. 1.3.4 IEEE 802.1Qbu/Qbr (IET - Interspersing Express Traffic / Frame Preemption)
      5. 1.3.5 IEEE 802.1Qbv (EST - Enhancements for Scheduled Traffic)
      6. 1.3.6 CPSW Specific hardware features
  5. 2Sample Use Cases: Distributed Motion Control in Robotics
    1. 2.1 Representative scenario
    2. 2.2 Network Topology Requirements
      1. 2.2.1 Why Daisy-Chain?
      2. 2.2.2 Real world applications of daisy chain ethernet solutions
    3. 2.3 Communication Requirements
    4. 2.4 Test Implementation
  6. 3System Overview and Architecture
    1. 3.1 Hardware Architecture
      1. 3.1.1 AM261x LaunchPad
      2. 3.1.2 CPSW Sub-System overview:
    2. 3.2 Software architecture
  7. 4Sample Implementation
    1. 4.1 Standard Ethernet + CPSW InterVLAN routing
      1. 4.1.1 What is Inter-VLAN Routing
      2. 4.1.2 How This Implementation leverages Inter-VLAN Routing:
      3. 4.1.3 Test-1 Benchmarks
    2. 4.2 Integrating gPTP Time Synchronization (IEEE802.1AS)
      1. 4.2.1 What is PTP time synchronization?
      2. 4.2.2 How this implementation uses GPTP time synchronization
      3. 4.2.3 Test-2 Benchmarks
    3. 4.3 Integrating VLAN (IEEE802.1Q)
      1. 4.3.1 What is VLAN?
      2. 4.3.2 How this implementation leverages VLAN
      3. 4.3.3 Test-3 benchmarks
    4. 4.4 Integrating IET Frame Preemption (IEEE802.1Qbu/Qbr)
      1. 4.4.1 What is IET (Interspersed Express Traffic)?
      2. 4.4.2 How this implementation leverages IET
      3. 4.4.3 Test-4 Benchmarks
    5. 4.5 Integrating EST scheduling (IEEE802.1Qbv)
      1. 4.5.1 What is EST?
  8. 5Conclusion
  9. 6Challenges and Debug considerations
    1. 6.1 Network Topology Verification
    2. 6.2 Traffic Flow Analysis
    3. 6.3 Host Port Traffic Monitoring
    4. 6.4 PHY Link Management
    5. 6.5 Packets not forwarded to next node
    6. 6.6 Error Handling and Retries
    7. 6.7 High latency or Jitter for high priority packets
    8. 6.8 gPTP not synchronizing
  10. 7References

3.1.1 AM261x LaunchPad

AM261x LaunchPad Figure 3-1 AM261x LaunchPad

The test hardware platform is the AM261x LaunchPad development board, Ethernet Configuration:

  • Two external Ethernet ports (Port 1 and Port 2)
  • DP83869HM Gigabit Ethernet PHY transceivers
  • RJ45 connectors with link/activity LEDs
  • RGMII interface between AM261x MAC and PHY

Power and Debug:

  • USB-based JTAG debug interface via XDS110
  • External 5V DC power supply

Board Modifications: None required for this implementation. The LaunchPad is used in its stock configuration.

Note: While this document talks about the AM261x, any other Micro-controller/Micro-processor from TI with CPSW interface can be used to implement a similar design.