Precision time protocol redundancy and load balancing across a set of active time servers

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for achieving redundancy and load balancing when synchronizing time for precision time protocol (PTP) connections within a network, the instructions that, when executed, cause:

• determining a PTP cluster for load balancing, the PTP clusters comprising PTP Grandmasters (GMs) and PTP ordinary clock (OC) groups, wherein the PTP GMs comprises a first PTP GM, and wherein the PTP OC groups comprise a first PTP OC group and a PTP OC;
• determining the PTP cluster corresponds to the PTP OC and the first PTP OC group, wherein the PTP OC comprises a unicast master table (UMT) and the UMT comprises port addresses associated with one or more of the PTP GMs and one or more PTP GM priority attributes, wherein the one or more PTP GM priority attributes are configured to achieve equal distribution of the PTP OC groups across the PTP GMs within the PTP cluster;
• selecting, for the PTP OC, by a Master Clock Mechanism based on the one or more PTP GM priority attributes, the first PTP GM;
• and
• synchronizing, based on the first PTP GM, the time for the PTP connections within the network.

A device for achieving redundancy and load balancing when synchronizing time for precision time protocol (PTP) connections within a network, the device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a non-transitory memory including computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the device to at least:
• determine a PTP cluster for load balancing, the PTP clusters comprising PTP Grandmasters (GMs) and PTP ordinary clock (OC) groups, wherein the PTP GMs comprises a first PTP GM, and wherein the PTP OC groups comprise a first PTP OC group and a PTP OC;
• determine the PTP cluster corresponds to the PTP OC and the first PTP OC group, wherein the PTP OC comprises a unicast master table (UMT) and the UMT comprises port addresses associated with one or more of the PTP GMs and one or more PTP GM priority attributes, wherein the one or more PTP GM priority attributes are configured to achieve equal distribution of the PTP OC groups across the PTP GMs within the PTP cluster;
• select, for the PTP OC, by a Master Clock Mechanism based on the one or more PTP GM priority attributes, the first PTP GM;
• and
• synchronize, based on the first PTP GM, the time for the PTP connections within the network.