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How do NTP, PTP, TSN, and EtherCAT all compare?

Updated Mar 5, 2025

Reported In

Driver

  • NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT

Issue Details

I would like to know the difference between TSN, NTP, PTP, and EtherCAT. What are the advantages and features of each?

Solution

NTP: Network Time Protocol is synchronizing time to a server on the internet. It allows you to synchronize devices in different rooms, buildings, cities, etc. because they're all connecting to the same publicly accessible server. The downside is its accuracy (millisecond range). 

PTP: Precision Timing Protocol is the general term for IEEE-1588 which is only supported by some of our hardware because only some of our hardware supports hardware-based synchronization which is what you need to achieve the benefits (nanosecond precision) of PTP. Furthermore, the synchronization is limited to the local network. 

TSN: Time Sensitive Networking uses PTP (IEEE-802.1AS) to synchronize devices across a local network. TSN also has features that can allow for deterministic communication over Ethernet, while still allowing other traffic over the network. 

EtherCAT: provides deterministic communication over Ethernet. It is a closed network though, so it cannot have non-EtherCAT devices on the network. It has other limitations but it is very common and relatively easy to use. 

Additional Information

Please note that although TSN has features that can allow for deterministic communication over Ethernet while still allowing other traffic over the network, NI does not use those features. NI TSN devices only support Time Synchronization (802.1AS), and do not support scheduled traffic, traffic shaping, and credit-based scheduling features.

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