Precision Time Protocol

About: Precision Time Protocol is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 604 publications have been published within this topic receiving 6006 citations. The topic is also known as: PTP & IEEE 1588.

Performance and Reliability Aspects of Clock Synchronization Techniques for Industrial Automation

Abstract: Modern distributed control systems comprise multiple intelligent devices capable of performing complex time and mission-critical tasks both independently of each other or partly jointly with each other. To do so, they strongly depend on an accurate common notion of time as well as a reliable shared communication medium for timely data exchange. Traditional legacy communication technologies (field bus systems) supported time transport to a certain extent or provided at least a common frequency. Due to its numerous undisputed advantages, Ethernet has become the only viable communication medium effectively replacing such systems. Being inherently asynchronous time and frequency transfer has to be accomplished using a packet-based approach when moving to Ethernet. After explaining the basic principles of packet-based time transfer, the most common standards are explained compared with each other with respect to their intended application domains. Special emphasis will be put on the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) as defined in the underlying IEEE 1588 standard and its variant IEEE 802.1AS used for time-sensitive networks. Maintaining a highly accurate common notion of time under all circumstances is a crucial prerequisite for most distributed systems. Although PTP has proven to provide sub-microsecond accuracies, it can cope only with a limited number of error conditions. This paper describes all major sources that can either deteriorate the accuracy or cause a total loss of synchronization altogether. Selected countermeasures and enhancements are presented, which can greatly improve the resilience of PTP against errors as well as malicious attacks. This paper concludes by presenting the selected measurements’ results of a novel proposed method.

A clock state estimator for PTP time synchronization in harsh environmental conditions

Abstract: In industrial automation networks based on the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) large temperature changes as well as mechanical shocks and vibrations may severely affect the performance of the local oscillators clocking the network nodes, thus making accurate time synchronization challenging. This problem is particularly critical in large industrial networks with long linear paths, as multiple uncertainty sources tend to accumulate while PTP event messages are forwarded towards the slave clocks. In this paper, the performance of a clock state estimator based on a special Kalman filter as well as on a detailed model of the PTP communication mechanism is described. The reported simulation results when the network nodes are subject to changeable environmental conditions provide interesting guidelines to keep synchronization accuracy in industrial networks within given boundaries.

Improving reliability of IEEE1588 in electric substation automation

Abstract: The IEEE 1588 precision time protocol seems to be a promising way to handle synchronization requirements of tomorrow substation automation. However, one of the remaining issues is its lack of reliability in case of the loss of the GPS signal (e.g. due to atmospheric disturbances or failure of the GPS antenna) which would lead to the desynchronization of the devices inside a substation or between different substations. To keep the devices synchronized without the GPS signal, this paper explores different drift clock prediction techniques. Three main approaches based on statistical, probabilistic and time series techniques are evaluated. On one hand, a statistical-based prediction technique can easily reach an accuracy of less than 10 musec for a prediction duration of a couple of seconds at a minimal computing cost. On the other hand, a time series-based prediction technique can provide an accuracy of 76 musec over a period of 48 hours but at a much higher computing power cost. Finally, we identify the most suitable technique for different type of GPS signal loss that typically occurs in the context of substation automation.

Skewless network clock synchronization without discontinuity: convergence and performance

Abstract: This paper examines synchronization of computer clocks connected via a data network and proposes a skewless algorithm to synchronize them. Unlike existing solutions, which either estimate and compensate the frequency difference (skew) among clocks or introduce offset corrections that can generate jitter and possibly even backward jumps, our solution achieves synchronization without these problems. We first analyze the convergence property of the algorithm and provide explicit necessary and sufficient conditions on the parameters to guarantee synchronization. We then study the effect of noisy measurements (jitter) and frequency drift (wander) on the offsets and synchronization frequency, and further optimize the parameter values to minimize their variance. Our study reveals a few insights, for example, we show that our algorithm can converge even in the presence of timing loops and noise, provided that there is a well-defined leader. This marks a clear contrast with current standards such as NTP and PTP, where timing loops are specifically avoided. Furthermore, timing loops can even be beneficial in our scheme as it is demonstrated that highly connected subnetworks can collectively outperform individual clients when the time source has large jitter. The results are supported by experiments running on a cluster of IBM BladeCenter servers with Linux.

Next Steps in Security for Time Synchronization: Experiences from implementing IEEE 1588 v2.1

Abstract: The lack of integrated support for security has been a major shortcoming of Precision Time Protocol version 2 (PTPv2) for a long time. The upcoming PTPv2.1 aims at addressing this shortcoming in a variety of ways, including the introduction of lightweight message authentication. In this paper we provide an overview of the planned security features, and report results based on an implementation of the proposed integrated security mechanism based on the open source Linux PTP, including support for hardware timestamping. Our implementation includes an extension of Linux PTP to support transparent clocks. We provide results from an experimental testbed including a transparent clock, which illustrate that the extensions can be implemented in software at a low computational overhead, while supporting hardware timestamping. We also provide a discussion of the remaining vulnerabilities of PTP time synchronization, propose countermeasures, and discuss options for key management, which is not covered by the standard.