Performance of IEEE 1588 in Large-Scale Networks

Georg Gaderer, Nataša Simanic, Patrick Loschmidt, and Bojan Coric

Abstract:	For industrial application purposes, the performance of the already well-established IEEE 1588 protocol represents a significant step forward with respect to NTP. The high precision and the determinism offered by this protocol are two of the main reasons for considering its deployment. In large-scale computer networks, the Network Time Protocol forms the counterpart as a protocol suite for precision clock synchronization within the Internet. The particular strength of this protocol lies in the well-engineered control algorithms and its wide distribution. This paper investigates the possibility of using IEEE 1588 for clock synchronization over the Internet. For this sake, experiments of synchronizing clocks between two distant locations are presented. The experimental setup employs a reference clock steered to GPS time and a slave clock synchronized to the reference via the Internet. Finally, the output of the slave is compared to the output of a GPS timing receiver. In order to have a competitive comparison with other protocols, the PTP clocks are controlled by a servo from an industrial application. This is mandatory, as IEEE 1588 does not specify any control algorithms. The results show that IEEE 1588, which allows for high synchronization rates, can help in solving the problem of synchronizing the nodes.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting November 15 - 18, 2010 Hyatt Regency Reston Town Center Reston, Virginia
Pages:	67 - 76
Cite this article:	Gaderer, Georg, Simanic, Nataša, Loschmidt, Patrick, Coric, Bojan, "Performance of IEEE 1588 in Large-Scale Networks," Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Reston, Virginia, November 2010, pp. 67-76.
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