Network adapter providing isolated self-contained time services

A compute node, comprising:

• a host, comprising one or more processors for running one or more time-service consumer processes;
• a peripheral bus;
• and
• a network adapter, which comprises a hardware clock and which is to:
• communicate with the host over the peripheral bus;
• receive, from a communication network, one or more time-protocol packets of a time-synchronization protocol, the time-protocol packets conveying a network time used for synchronizing network devices in the communication network;
• run, within the network adapter, a software stack of the time-synchronization protocol, wherein running the software stack includes aligning the hardware clock to the network time conveyed in the time-protocol packets;
• and
• make the network time available over the peripheral bus to the time-service consumer processes running in the host.

A method in a network adapter, the method comprising:

• receiving in the network adapter, from a communication network, one or more time-protocol packets of a time-synchronization protocol, the time-protocol packets conveying a network time used for synchronizing network devices in the communication network;
• running, within the network adapter, a software stack of the time-synchronization protocol, including aligning a hardware clock in the network adapter to the network time conveyed in the time-protocol packets;
• and
• making the network time available over a peripheral bus to one or more time-service consumers running in a host served by the network adapter.

A method is a compute node, the method comprising:

• running one or more time-service consumer processes in one or more processors of a host;
• and
• in a network adapter that serves the host:
• communicating with the host over a peripheral bus;
• receiving, from a communication network, one or more time-protocol packets of a time-synchronization protocol, the time-protocol packets conveying a network time used for synchronizing network devices in the communication network;
• running, within the network adapter, a software stack of the time-synchronization protocol, including aligning a hardware clock in the network adapter to the network time conveyed in the time-protocol packets;
• and
• making the network time available over the peripheral bus to the time-service consumer processes running in the host.