Timing and Synchronization Overview

In network operations, support for time management and clock synchronization ensures that devices on your network display the correct date and time. Accurate and reliable synchronization of network devices helps in managing security, availability, and efficiency of the network devices. You can configure and synchronize the clocks on the devices so that all devices on the network display accurate time.

Time-based protocols and methods to configure and synchronize the network devices include:

• Synchronous Ethernet—A physical layer technology that functions regardless of the network load and supports hop-by-hop frequency transfer, where all interfaces on the trail must support Synchronous Ethernet. It enables you to deliver synchronization services that meet the requirements of the present-day mobile network, as well as future Long Term Evolution (LTE)–based infrastructures.

• Precision Time Protocol (PTP)—Provides time synchronization service over precise time and frequency on packet-based networks. In time synchronization, packets are transmitted and received in a session between a timeTransmitter clock and a timeReceiver clock.

  Note:

  Juniper documentation adheres to the inclusive terms adopted by IEEE 1588. See, Appendix - Inclusive Terms for more information.

• Network Time Protocol (NTP)—Provides time synchronizes to all devices on a network. The primary NTP servers are synchronized to a reference clock, such as GPS receivers and telephone modem services. An NTP server receives the time service from a time source, a clock that is attached to a time server, and then distributes and synchronizes the time across all devices on a network.