Current knowledge is that fast and reliable Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) requires wired Ethernet connections. In today’s fully networked factories, this leads to a lot of cables – a massive amount, adding to the existing mass of power cables, sensor cabling and so on, already present on the factory floor.
Now, with increasing automation with autonomous mobile robots, automated guided vehicles and collaborative robots, I like to imagine technicians on factory floors untangling cables from these robots, grumpily asking themselves the question:
"Why do we have to use data cables at all?"
While this image is, of course, an exaggeration (there aren’t really wires snaking all across factory floors), the fact remains: until recently, industrial systems relied on hardwired Ethernet or field busses to guarantee precise timing and data reliability. But in modern factories, mobility and flexibility have become just as important as speed. And there is a breakthrough that is now changing connectivity in industrial automation: Wireless Time-Sensitive Networking.
Smarter Factories. Fewer Limits.
Wireless TSN (or WTSN) combines the ultra-reliable performance of Time-Sensitive Networking with the wireless power of Wi-Fi 6E, creating a high-performance network without physical constraints. In simple terms? You get wired-level precision with wireless freedom.
Whether you’re building autonomous robots, designing edge AI systems, or optimizing production lines, WTSN opens up possibilities that were once off-limits. Machines can now communicate and react in real-time even on the move. Mobile robots become fully integrated team members, not isolated tools. For engineers, this means more room to innovate. For product managers and decision-makers, it means faster development cycles, fewer bottlenecks, and modular designs that scale effortlessly.
The Brains Behind the Breakthrough
None of this happens without robust, reliable hardware. Enabling WTSN requires computing performance capable of handling industrial applications, often involving video processing and AI workloads. You need processors like the Intel Atom® x7000RE that provide multi-core processing, integrated graphics engines, AI workload acceleration and more.
And you need an ecosystem that helps to integrate real-time responsiveness, AI acceleration, and industrial-grade resilience in a low-profile, ready-to-go form factor. That’s where the SMARC Computer-on-Module standard comes in: it delivers compact, rugged and highly power-efficient computing modules to help you prototype faster, deploy sooner, and scale smarter, whether you’re a lean startup or a global manufacturer.
Ready to Build the Future?
Wireless TSN isn’t a concept on the horizon. It’s already transforming how embedded systems connect, collaborate, and evolve. If you’re part of the embedded computing world, it’s a shift you need to be up to date with. To this end, we’ve prepared a whitepaper that not only explains the potential of wireless time-sensitive networking, but also gives an in-depth look at how SMARC modules can enable WTSN for the industrial ecosystem of the future.
Download it here:
