A Joint Routing and Scheduling Algorithm with Load Balancing for CQF of Time-Sensitive Networking

Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is an enhancement to standard Ethernet that enables time-critical applications by providing deterministic guarantees on latency and jitter. One of the critical mechanisms in TSN is Cyclic Queuing and Forwarding (CQF), which simplifies the scheduling of time-triggered (TT) streams. However, efficient scheduling of TT streams under CQF remains a challenge since it has largely ignored the impact of routing, resulting in suboptimal scheduling performance. In addition, the joint routing scheduling of existing CQF research ignores the impact of load balancing on scheduling. In this paper, we propose a novel joint routing and scheduling algorithm, JRAS-CQF, that addresses the limitations of existing methods by considering a wider range of routing options and incorporating a route evaluation function that accounts for network hops and load balancing. Our simulation results demonstrate that JRAS-CQF achieves higher schedulability, improved resource utilization, and better load balancing than existing algorithms.