Asynchronous Time-Sensitive Networking for 5G Backhauling Prados Garzón, Jonathan Taleb, Tarik Backhaul Networks Transport Networks Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) This work is partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the CHARITY project with grant agreement No. 101016509. It is also partially supported by the Academy of Finland Project CSN - under Grant Agreement 311654 and the 6Genesis project under Grant No. 318927. Fifth Generation (5G) phase 2 rollouts are around the corner to make mobile ultra-reliable and low-latency services a reality. However, to realize that scenario, besides the new 5G built-in Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) capabilities, it is required to provide a substrate network with deterministic Quality-of-Service support for interconnecting the different 5G network functions and services. Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) appears as an appealing network technology to meet the 5G connectivity needs in many scenarios involving critical services and their coexistence with Mobile Broadband traffic. In this article, we delve into the adoption of asynchronous TSN for 5G backhauling and some of the relevant related aspects. We start motivating TSN and introducing its mainstays. Then, we provide a comprehensive overview of the architecture and operation of the IEEE 802.1Qcr Asynchronous Traffic Shaper (ATS), the building block of asynchronous TSN. Next, a management framework based on ETSI Zero-touch network and Service Management (ZSM) and Abstraction and Control of Traffic Engineered Networks (ACTN) reference models is presented for enabling the TSN transport network slicing and its interworking with Fifth Generation (5G) for backhauling. After, we cover the flow allocation problem in asynchronous TSNs and the importance of Machine Learning techniques for assisting it. Last, we present a simulation-based proof-of-concept (PoC) to assess the capacity of ATS-based forwarding planes for accommodating 5G data flows. 2026-02-10T07:53:38Z 2026-02-10T07:53:38Z 2021-03-08 journal article J. Prados-Garzon and T. Taleb, "Asynchronous Time-Sensitive Networking for 5G Backhauling," in IEEE Network, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 144-151, March/April 2021, doi: 10.1109/MNET.011.2000402 1558-156X 0890-8044 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/110781 10.1109/MNET.011.2000402 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ open access Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional IEEE