Cyclic Queuing and Forwarding (CQF) is a key Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) shaping mechanism that ensures bounded latency using a simple gate control list (GCL). Recently, variants of CQF, including Cycle Specific Queuing and Forwarding (CSQF) and Multi Cyclic Queuing and Forwarding (MCQF), have emerged. While popular TSN mechanisms such as the Time-Aware Shaper (TAS), Asynchronous Traffic Shaper (ATS), Credit-Based Shaper (CBS), and Strict Priority (SP) have been extensively studied, cyclic shapers have not been thoroughly evaluated. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of CQF, CSQF, and MCQF, providing insights into their performance. We quantify delays through simulations and quantitative analysis on both synthetic and realistic networks. For the first time, we introduce an open-source OMNeT++ and INET4.4 based framework capable of modeling all three cyclic shaper variants. Our tool facilitates the validation of new algorithms and serves as a benchmark for cyclic shapers. Our evaluations reveal that MCQF supports diverse timing requirements, whereas CSQF, with its additional queue, often results in larger delays and jitter for some TT flows compared to CQF. Additionally, CSQF does not demonstrate significant advantages in TSN networks where propagation delays are less critical than in wide-area networks (WANs).

翻译：循环排队与转发（CQF）是一种关键的时间敏感网络（TSN）整形机制，通过简单的门控列表（GCL）确保有界延迟。近年来，CQF的变体相继出现，包括周期特定排队与转发（CSQF）和多循环排队与转发（MCQF）。尽管时间感知整形器（TAS）、异步流量整形器（ATS）、基于信用的整形器（CBS）和严格优先级（SP）等主流TSN机制已得到广泛研究，但循环整形器尚未被系统评估。本文对CQF、CSQF和MCQF进行了全面分析，深入揭示了其性能特征。我们通过在合成网络和实际网络中的仿真与定量分析，量化了各类延迟指标。我们首次提出了一个基于开源OMNeT++与INET4.4的仿真框架，该框架能够对全部三种循环整形器变体进行建模。我们的工具不仅可用于验证新算法，还为循环整形器的性能评估提供了基准测试平台。评估结果表明：MCQF能够支持多样化的时序需求；而CSQF由于增加了额外队列，相较于CQF在某些时间触发流中往往产生更大的延迟与抖动。此外，在传播延迟影响相对广域网较小的TSN网络中，CSQF并未表现出显著优势。