Over the last decade, society and industries are undergoing rapid digitization that is expected to lead to the evolution of the cyber-physical continuum. End-to-end deterministic communications infrastructure is the essential glue that will bridge the digital and physical worlds of the continuum. We describe the state of the art and open challenges with respect to contemporary deterministic communications and compute technologies: 3GPP 5G, IEEE Time-Sensitive Networking, IETF DetNet, OPC UA as well as edge computing. While these technologies represent significant technological advancements towards networking Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), we argue in this paper that they rather represent a first generation of systems which are still limited in different dimensions. In contrast, realizing future deterministic communication systems requires, firstly, seamless convergence between these technologies and, secondly, scalability to support heterogeneous (time-varying requirements) arising from diverse CPS applications. In addition, future deterministic communication networks will have to provide such characteristics end-to-end, which for CPS refers to the entire communication and computation loop, from sensors to actuators. In this paper, we discuss the state of the art regarding the main challenges towards these goals: predictability, end-to-end technology integration, end-to-end security, and scalable vertical application interfacing. We then present our vision regarding viable approaches and technological enablers to overcome these four central challenges. Key approaches to leverage in that regard are 6G system evolutions, wireless friendly integration of 6G into TSN and DetNet, novel end-to-end security approaches, efficient edge-cloud integrations, data-driven approaches for stochastic characterization and prediction, as well as leveraging digital twins towards system awareness.

翻译：过去十年间，社会与工业正经历着快速数字化进程，这预计将催生信息物理连续体的演进。端到端确定性通信基础设施是连接该连续体中数字世界与物理世界的核心纽带。本文系统阐述了当代确定性通信与计算技术的现状及开放挑战，涵盖3GPP 5G、IEEE时间敏感网络、IETF确定网络、OPC UA以及边缘计算。尽管这些技术代表了信息物理系统网络化进程的重大进步，但我们认为它们仍属于受多维度限制的第一代系统。相比之下，实现未来确定性通信系统首先需要这些技术的无缝融合，其次需要具备支撑来自多样化信息物理系统应用的异构（时变需求）可扩展能力。此外，未来确定性通信网络须提供端到端特性——就信息物理系统而言，这涉及从传感器到执行器的完整通信与计算闭环。本文围绕实现上述目标的主要挑战展开现状分析：可预测性、端到端技术集成、端到端安全性，以及可扩展的垂直应用接口。随后我们提出了应对这四大核心挑战的可行方案与技术使能器的愿景。相关关键方法包括：6G系统演进、6G与TSN及DetNet的无线友好集成、新型端到端安全方案、高效边缘云集成、基于数据驱动的随机特性表征与预测，以及利用数字孪生实现系统感知。