Avnu Alliance, the industry consortium driving open, standards-based deterministic networking, has announced globally-scaled testing capabilities and a comprehensive update of its certification testing procedures at newly authorized, commercial test houses around the world. This advanced global certification program will streamline certification testing of devices with Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) capabilities, including devices implementing the Milan™ network protocol (using TSN) for professional media, making testing easier and more convenient for Avnu members around the world.

Global Locations

Avnu has announced expanded testing at new Registered Test Facilities (RTF) around the world: Allion in Taipei City, Taiwan; Excelfore in Tokyo, Japan; and Granite River Labs in both Santa Clara, CA, USA and Karlsruhe, Germany. These well-recognized, globally dispersed test labs will lower shipping times, offer competitive pricing models, and streamline the process for members seeking to certify products and make communications between testing sites and vendors seamless. These additional test sites and locations give Avnu Alliance greater ability to scale testing capacity to meet demand, while also allowing device manufacturers to enter products into testing with less lead time prior to release.

“As a part of standard networking technology, TSN is built and deployed around the world,” says Greg Schlechter, president of the Avnu Alliance.  “Avnu recognized that, for device certification to keep pace with innovation, we needed to expand our testing capabilities and global footprint to increase accessibilty, enable the growth of both test programs and manufacturers, and in general support the diversity of the growing TSN ecosystem.”

Avnu’s goal is to enable an ecosystem of interoperable, secure, low-latency, and highly reliable networked devices using TSN as part of the open IEEE 802.1 Ethernet standards. Avnu has a variety of test plans and programs to help manufacturers implementing TSN ensure interoperability and demonstrate that to their markets through certification programs.

Avnu’s membership brings together experts in automotive, industrial, and networked media as well as all perspectives from across the value chain, including infrastructure providers, silicon and component vendors, and end-device manufacturers. These members collaborate on the current and future requirements for an interoperable TSN ecosystem and define and create conformance test procedures, plans, scripts, and tools for devices and products that leverage Milan and TSN. Those test scripts and procedures are licensed to designated, third-party testing laboratories, where the tests are independently conducted to validate compliance with the specifications.

Certification Management System and Product Registry

To streamline the new program, Avnu has launched a new testing portal and comprehensive Certification Management System (CMS) with simplified and intelligent certification workflows for seamless, transparent communication. Designed and maintained by experienced certification management professionals, the new CMS provides members with real-time visibility into the testing process and the ability to track device progress and timelines.

In this web-based portal, Avnu members can submit products for testing, view results, respond to nonconformance issues, and manage the public listing of newly Certified products. All certification and testing documents are easily managed in a single, centralized location. Intelligent workflows feed data and visibility back to Avnu’s Certification Work Group to track the number of products in certification at each lab, enabling Avnu to scale the capabilities as needed to support testing demand.

In addition, Avnu’s certification website will launch a new product registry with a robust database showing all products currently Certified by Avnu. Advanced filtering capabilities make it easy for members’ customers and end-users to search for products to specify and design into systems.

“With this new certification platform, Avnu continues to innovate in making pre-certification and certification testing easier, faster, and more convenient for member companies, test equipment manufacturers, and test facilities around the world,” added Ed Agis, Certification Work Group co-chair. “Interoperability ultimately accelerates a broader ecosystem of devices, which is the long-term advantage of this advanced global certification platform.”

The certification program will first support testing and certification for Milan devices at new locations. Testing services will continue to be offered at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab. The testing program will continue to evolve; additional certification test plans will become available through these global facilities as the TSN ecosystem grows. Those interested in having a vote and voice in developing the requirements needed to ensure the interoperability of TSN standards-based devices can visit www.avnu.org to learn more about membership in Avnu Alliance and get involved.

Test House Support

Allion

Brian Shih, CTO of Allion Lab: “We are very glad to announce that Allion Labs has been approved as an Avnu Recognized Test Facility. We believe that TSN technology will bring new developments and real breakthroughs across automotive, industrial and professional audio-video industries. The Avnu Alliance certification is certainly going to be a must-get mark for TSN and Milan standards-based devices. Allion has been working closely with the Avnu Alliance and getting ready for the first wave of Avnu Advanced Certification Program to address the testing needs in the ever-growing ecosystem.”

Excelfore

Shrikant Acharya, CTO of Excelfore:  “Excelfore is pleased to participate in the Avnu TSN and Milan certification program.  We are strong supporters of standardization and began working with AVB/TSN in 2011. Our own protocol stacks have been Avnu-Certified since 2016, and we have a deep appreciation of the need for rigorous independent 3rd party testing to ensure compliance and interoperability.  Our Japan team stands ready to help others achieve Milan certification, as we work together to establish fully interoperable TSN-based devices for mainstream use in time-sensitive applications.”

Granite River Labs

Vamshi Kandalla Chief Strategy Officer of Granite River Labs: “Granite River Labs (GRL) helps engineers solve the toughest design and validation challenges, so we are proud to be recognized as an authorized test laboratory to help streamline the certification process for Avnu members. The new certification program will play a critical role in providing a seamless verification experience as well as ensuring interoperability and consumer satisfaction for professional media vendors supporting Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) capabilities.”

Avnu Alliance is a community creating an interoperable ecosystem of low-latency, time-synchronized, highly reliable networked devices using open standards. Avnu creates comprehensive certification programs to ensure interoperability of networked devices. The foundational technology enables deterministic synchronized networking based on IEEE Audio Video Bridging (AVB) / Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) base standards. The Alliance, in conjunction with other complimentary standards bodies and alliances, provides a united network foundation for use in professional AV, automotive, industrial control and consumer segments.

Technology report by Avnu Alliance