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Precision Time Protocol Overview

Increase in bandwidth requirements on wireless backhaul networks and the need to reduce costs and to improve flexibility have triggered the need for a packet-based backhaul infrastructure. Traditional metro deployments do not cater to the delivery of synchronization services, and this leaves operators with no other choice than to keep older parallel infrastructure. Physical layer–based Synchronous Ethernet and packet-based Precision Time Protocol (PTP) enable routers and switches to deliver synchronization services that meet the requirements of today’s mobile network, as well as Long Term Evolution (LTE)–based infrastructures. Physical layer–based technologies function regardless of network load, whereas packet-based technologies require careful architecture and capacity planning. For information about Synchronous Ethernet, see Synchronous Ethernet Overview.

PTP, also known as IEEE 1588v2, is a packet-based technology that enables the operator to deliver synchronization services on packet-based mobile backhaul networks. IEEE 1588 PTP (Version 2) clock synchronization standard is a highly precise protocol for time synchronization that synchronizes clocks in a distributed system. The time synchronization is achieved through packets that are transmitted and received in a session between a primary clock and a client clock.

The system clocks can be categorized based on the role of the node in the network. They are broadly categorized into ordinary clocks and boundary clocks. The primary clock and the client clock are known as ordinary clocks. The boundary clock can operate as either a primary clock or a client clock. The following list explains these clocks in detail:

  • Primary clock—The primary clock transmits the messages to the PTP clients (also called client node or boundary node). This allows the clients to establish their relative time distance and offset from the primary clock (which is the reference point) for phase synchronization. Delivery mechanism to the clients is either unicast or multicast packets over Ethernet or UDP.

  • Member clock—Located in the PTP client (also called client node), the client clock performs clock and time recovery operations based on the received and requested timestamps from the primary clock.

  • Boundary clock—The boundary clock operates as a combination of the primary and client clocks. The boundary clock endpoint acts as a client clock to the primary clock, and also acts as the primary to all the slaves reporting to the boundary endpoint.

For more information about configuring PTP, see Configuring Precision Time Protocol and Example: Configuring Precision Time Protocol.

Table 1 summarizes the first Junos OS release that supports PTP on various Juniper Networks devices:

Table 1: Precision Time Protocol Support

Juniper Networks Devices

Junos OS Release

MX80 Universal Routing Platforms with model number MX80-P

12.2

MX-MPC2E-3D-P (MPC2E P) on MX240, MX480, and MX960 routers

12.2

MX-MPC2E-3D-P (MPC2E P) on MX2010 and MX2020 routers

12.3

MX-MPC2E- 3D-NG (MPC2E NG)

15.1R2

MPC4E-3D-32XGE-SFPP on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, MX2020

15.1R1

MPC4E-3D-2CGE-8XGE on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, MX2020

15.1R1

MPC3E-3D-NG-Q on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, MX2020

15.1R2

MPC3E-3D-NG on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, MX2020

15.1R2

Following enhanced MPCs support PTP (1588v2):

  • MPC5E-40G10G on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, and MX2020 routers

  • MPC5EQ-40G10G on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, and MX2020 routers

  • MPC5E-100G10G on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, and MX2020 routers

  • MPC5EQ-100G10G on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, and MX2020 routers

  • MX2K-MPC6E on MX2010, and MX2020 routers

14.2R2

Ethernet Modular Interface Cards (MICs) on MX240, MX480, and MX960 routers

12.2

Ethernet Modular Interface Cards (MICs) on MX2010 and MX2020 routers

12.3

On MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, and MX2020 routers, the following Enhanced MPCs (MPCEs) support PTP (1588v2) under express licensing only:

  • MPC1E (MX-MPC1E-3D)

  • MPC1E Q (MX-MPC1E-3D-Q)

  • MPC2E (MX-MPC2E-3D)

  • MPC2E Q (MX-MPC2E-3D-Q)

  • MPC2E EQ (MX-MPC2E-3D-EQ)

For more information about obtaining a license, contact JTAC.

12.3

ACX Series Universal Metro Routers

12.2

MPC6E, MPC7E, MPC8E, MPC9E, MPC2E NG, and MPC3E NG on MX2008.

17.2

Fixed port PIC (6xQSFPP) and modular MIC (JNP-MIC1) on MX10003 routers

17.3

Fixed port PICs (4xQSFP28 and 8xSFPP) on MX204 routers

17.4

MPC7E-10G and MPC7E-MRATE on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, MX2020

17.4

MPC8E and MPC9E on MX2010, MX2020

17.4

You can configure timestamping either at the physical layer or at the nonphysical layer on the 10-Gigabit Ethernet and 100-Gigabit Ethernet ports. Juniper Networks recommends that you configure timestamping at the physical layer if the port supports IEEE 1588 timestamping, which is also known as PHY timestamping.

Note:

  • On 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports, PHY timestamping and WAN-PHY framing are mutually exclusive—that is, you cannot configure PHY timestamping on a 10-Gigabit Ethernet port if you have configured WAN-PHY framing mode on that port. This is applicable only for MPC5E and MPC6E with 24x10XGE MIC.

  • PHY timestamping is not supported on the enhanced MPCs MPC1E, MPC2E, and MPC4E. Only hardware timestamping is supported on these MPCs. Therefore, a packet delay variation (also known as jitter) of up to 1 microsecond is observed on these MPCs for a very small percentage of packets occasionally. Hardware timestamping is typically timestamping either at FPGA or similar device.

  • Unified in-service software upgrade (unified ISSU) is currently not supported when clock synchronization is configured for PTP and Synchronous Ethernet on the MICs and Enhanced MPCEs on MX240, MX480, MX960, MX2010, and MX2020 routers.

  • To switch between the PTP and Synchronous Ethernet modes, you must first deactivate the configuration for the current mode and then commit the configuration. Wait for a short period of 30 seconds, configure the new mode and its related parameters, and then commit the configuration.

  • Starting in Junos OS Release 24.2R1, MIC-3D-10GE-SFP-E for MPC2E-3D and MPC3E-3D line cards of MX240, MX480, MX960, and MX2020 routers, supports Precision Time Protocol (PTP) with Media Access Control Security (MACsec) encryption enabled on the same port at the same time. However, the following limitations apply:

    1. The maximum MACsec enabled logical interfaces (IFL) is 200 per system.

    2. The maximum MACsec enabled ports with physical interfaces (IFDs) and IFLs where MACsec and PTP are enabled together on different ports is 200 per system.

    3. The maximum number of IFLs that can be supported on both 1G and 10G ports is 128.

    4. PTP in clear text mode is not supported.

G.8275.1 Telecom Profile

Profiles were introduced in IEEE 1588-2008 to define a combination of options and attribute values, aimed at supporting a given application. G.8275.1 is a PTP profile for telecom applications requiring accurate phase and time synchronization. It supports the architecture defined in ITU-T G.8275 to enable the distribution of phase and time with full timing support and is based on the second version of PTP defined in [IEEE 1588].

Note:

If you don’t configure a profile, the device operates in IEEE1588v2 profile which is the default profile.
Note:

ACX710, ACX2100, and ACX2200 routers support G.8275.1 Telecom Profile.

The following sections give a brief overview about the types of clocks supported in the G.8275.1 profile and about the Alternate BMCA:

Types of Clocks Supported in the G.8275.1 Profile

There are two types of clocks supported in this profile, the ordinary clock and the boundary clock.

There are two types of ordinary clocks:

  • One that can be only a reference clock (T-GM)

  • One that can be only a client clock (a client-only ordinary clock or T-TSC)

There are two types of boundary clocks:

  • One that can be only a reference clock (T-GM )

  • One that can become a primary clock and a client clock to another PTP clock (T-BC)

Note:

MX Series routers support the TSC and TBC clock types.

Alternate BMCA

The G.8275.1 profile uses an alternate Best Master Clock Algorithm (BMCA). The alternate BMCA allows:

  • A new per-port attribute named notSlave. The notSlave port attribute is implemented using the protocols ptp master stanza configuration.

  • Multiple active reference clocks.

  • Per-port attribute local-priority to be used as a tie-breaker in the dataset comparison algorithm.

PTP over Link Aggregation Group

Junos Supports PTP over LAG based on the recommendation in ITU-T-G.8275.1. For each aggregated Ethernet link configured as PTP primary or client, you can specify one member link of the aggregated Ethernet bundle as primary and another as secondary. PTP switches over to the secondary member in the aggregated Ethernet bundle when the primary aggregated Ethernet link is down. For providing both link-level and FPC-level redundancy, the primary and secondary interfaces of the aggregated Ethernet bundle must be configured on separate line cards. If both primary and secondary are configured on the same line card, it would provide only link-level redundancy.

PTP primary streams are created on the FPC on which the primary interface is present. Announce and sync packets are transmitted on this active PTP aggregated Ethernet link. The line card on the PTP client containing this active PTP aggregated Ethernet link will receive announce and sync packets from the remote primary.

This table summarizes the first Junos OS release that supports PTP over LAG on various Juniper Networks devices:

Table 2: PTP over LAG Support

Juniper Network Devices

PTP over IPv4

PTP over Ethernet

MPC2E NG

17.2R1

–

MPC3E NG

17.2R1

–

MPC5E

17.2R1

18.2R1

MPC6E

17.2R1

18.2R1

MPC7E-10G

18.1R1

18.3R1

MPC7E–MRATE

18.1R1

18.3R1

MPC8E

18.1R1

18.3R1

MPC9E

18.1R1

18.3R1

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