Abstract

This paper shows how to distribute GPS-time with s-accuracy and below even in Ethernet-based distributed systems. Our SynUTC-approach 1 is based upon a simple network controller-level hardware for timestamping data packets as they leave and arrive at a node, which comes in two flavours: The memory-based timestamping method exploited by our Network Time Interface (NTI) M-Module timestamps data packets as the network controller accesses them in memory. This technique can be used for virtually any type of network and network controllers. For 10 Mb/s Ethernet, for example, our experimental evaluation revealed a time distribution accuracy down to the s-range. Still, memory-based timestamping requires network controllers that cannot store entire packets on-chip, and the available configuration parameters must be carefully chosen in order to cope with the various hidden sources of timing uncertainty. To escape from those limitations, we recently developed a novel MII-based times...

Citations