Performance Measurement and Analysis of GPTP Time Synchronization Over Private 5G-TSN Networks
Abstract
The evolution of industrial communication systems is increasingly shaped by the integration of ultra-reliable, low-latency wireless technologies. Among these, the convergence of 5G mobile networks with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) offers strong potential to enable deterministic communication with strict timing constraints. Precise time sync is essential for coordinated operations in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. While TSN provides mechanisms for time sync in Ethernet networks, the integration of these capabilities to 5G-based wireless domains remains an open challenge. Current 5G specifications include support for time-sensitive services, yet practical implementations and performance evaluations -especially regarding end-to-end sync accuracy - are still lacking and questions about the feasibility and limits of sync in heterogeneous 5G-TSN networks remain unclear. We explore the implementation and the performance of time sync in a 5G-TSN integrated system. We propose an architecture and evaluate the performance through measurements across multiple core and RAN configurations in a private 5G campus network. Our results show measured offsets mostly within $\pm \mathbf{5 0} \text{ns}$ for best and ±400 ns worst cases, contributing key insights into the feasibility and limitations of 5G-TSN time sync in real deployments.