Architecture
The IEEE 1588 standards describe a hierarchical master-slave architecture for clock distribution. Under this architecture, a time distribution system consists of one or more communication media (network segments), and one or more clocks. An ordinary clock is a device with a single network connection and is either the source of (master) or destination for (slave) a synchronization reference. A boundary clock has multiple network connections and can accurately bridge synchronization from one network segment to another. A synchronization master is elected for each of the network segments in the system. The root timing reference is called the grandmaster. The grandmaster transmits synchronization information to the clocks residing on its network segment. The boundary clocks with a presence on that segment then relay accurate time to the other segments to which they are also connected.
A simplified PTP system frequently consists of ordinary clocks connected to a single network. No boundary clocks are used. A grandmaster is elected and all other clocks synchronize directly to it.
IEEE 1588-2008 introduces a clock associated with network equipment used to convey PTP messages. The transparent clock modifies PTP messages as they pass through the device. Timestamps in the messages are corrected for time spent traversing the network equipment. This scheme improves distribution accuracy by compensating for delivery variability across the network.
PTP typically uses the same epoch as Unix time (Midnight, 1 January 1970). Whereas Unix time is based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and is subject to leap seconds, PTP is based on International Atomic Time (TAI) and moves forward monotonically. The PTP grandmaster communicates the current offset between UTC and TAI so that UTC can be computed from the received PTP time.
Read more about this topic: Precision Time Protocol
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