Believe it or not, there are still areas of Ethernet that require standardization. Recently, the IEEE took a step toward developing a standard for Ethernet time synchronization.
The IEEE changed the Time Synchronization Study Group into a task force (called 802.3bf) meaning that it has gone from exploring options and vendor interest to beginning work on a standard.
The IEEE group said in its project authorization request that it believes Ethernet could be used in even more applications if it had time synchronization. It lists these applications as audio-video bridging, wireless backhaul, industrial control, and even the SmartGrid effort to update the network for the United States’ energy infrastructure. One could imagine that many time-sensitive applications could benefit from such a standard.
Further, the group says the capability has been in use for some time, but only on a proprietary basis, as companies implemented time synchronization to achieve their goals in a non-standard way. As always, if the capability were standardized, they reason, the market for such equipment could be greatly expanded.
Time synchronization will be defined as an optional interface with accompanying management. It won’t change deployment, affect interoperability or increase costs. If two systems are communicating, and one supports the protocol and the other doesn’t, they can still communicate.
Some work on time synchronization has already been done, in 802.1AS. The new effort would support and complement that effort by providing “an accurate indication of the transmission and reception initiation times of certain packets as required” to support that standard.
