Introduction

Networks are transitioning from circuit switched to packet switched to become more efficient, flexible and cost effective. With time critical services such as audio and real time video being transported through the inherently asynchronous Packet Networks, Timing over Packet technologies such as IEEE1588 is used to support synchronization and is becoming prominent. The requirements of Synchronization designs posing challenges to traditional methods.

Medium term stability challenges for oscillators used in IEEE 1588v2

The local synchronised oscillator is moving from a physical layer based, phase or frequency locked loop, to a time locked system via secondary layer protocols. The non stochastic nature of the packet delay variations (PDV) force the loop to have smaller bandwidths and thus longer time constants. Oscillators present themselves as high pass filters in the control loop, thus smaller loop bandwidths can mean that the medium term stability performance of an oscillator is important to the overall system performance. Effectively the oscillators stability performance is now dominated by environmental changes during the extended time periods. The oscillator stability over the medium term (minutes to hours) is either poorly characterised or not been accounted for at all, since the stability under these conditions is covered indirectly by other oscillator/system specifications. Historically there have been only two oscillator / lock bandwidth combinations, namely Stratum 3 and Stratum 3E. For Stratum 3 oscillators, the effect of variable temperature on TDEV and MTIE was likely to be minimal since the oscillator has a lock bandwidth in the 0.1 to 10 Hz range (time constants of 1.6s to .02s) and any slow changes in frequency due to, for example, temperature fluctuations were filtered out. Conversely, with the Stratum 3E oscillator, because of the very high stability required for the variable temperature stability requirement (5 ppb), small changes in temperature would not affect the TDEV and MTIE even with a 1 millihertz (mHz) lock bandwidth (time constants of 160s.)

Right oscillator for right application

The non - stationary nature of the PDVs impose new requirements for the local oscillator. Loops operate with lock bandwidths in the 10 mHz to 0.1 mHz (time constant 1600s) region to filter the wander introduced by PDV. System specifications of frequency stability, holdover requirements for frequency and if required phase will determine the requirements for Oscillators. For systems that require frequency and time holdover will require Stratum 3E or higher temperature stability performance. For systems that does not require holdover, oscillators that are compliant to G.8263 specifications may still provide the wander filtering necessary to meet the TDEV / MTIE requirements. The challenge for the system designer is to assess which oscillator will work at which lock bandwidth and still meet the implied TDEV/MTIE requirements in locked conditions and assess what oscillators may be required to provide adequate holdover for specified duration of time required by the application. This is where Rakon can help.

Why Rakon for packet timing applications?

At Rakon we have the expertise to help determine the best oscillator solution for our customers systems requirements. Oscillator solutions require knowledge of the differential in frequency versus the differential in temperature. Full characterisation is determined by defining the temperature ramp and measurement rate and a detailed analysis over the characterisation time period. Rakon has characterised various types of oscillators under changing environmental conditions for the loop time periods relevant to IEEE 1588v2. Rakon presents a wide range of oscillators that economically fit a wide range of application requirements in the IEEE 1588 space.