Remote timing communications
AssigneeCenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC
InventorsGregory A. Wolfe, Michael Bugenhagen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system, method, and optical switch for communicating timing. A determination is made whether one of a number of data streams are available. Packets are received at a remote node in response to determining one of the number of data streams is available. A timing characteristic of the at least one of the packets is associated with a tick of a reference clock. The tick of the reference clock is extracted utilizing the timing characteristic of the at least one of the packets. A secondary clock is disciplined with the reference clock by adjusting the secondary clock based on a difference between times measured by the reference clock and the secondary clock to generate a clock signal. The clock signal is communicated to one or more interfaces for distributing.
Claims20
A method for communicating timing, the method comprising:
- determining whether one of a plurality of data streams are available;
- receiving packets at a remote node in response to determining one of the plurality of data streams is available, wherein a timing characteristic of the at least one of the packets is associated with a tick of a reference clock;
- switching between the plurality of data streams to determine the tick of the reference clock in response to the one of the plurality of data streams being unavailable;
- extracting the tick of the reference clock utilizing the timing characteristic of the at least one of the packets;
- disciplining a secondary clock with the reference clock by adjusting the secondary clock based on a difference between times measured by the reference clock and the secondary clock to generate a clock signal;
- and
- communicating the clock signal to one or more interfaces for distribution.
An optical switch for communicating through an optical network, the optical switch comprising:
- an optical interface receiving a plurality of streams through fiber optics, wherein the optical interface extracts ticks of a reference clock from one or more data packets included in the number of streams, wherein ticks of the reference clock is associated with a timing characteristic of each of the one or more data packets, wherein the optical interface determines whether each of the plurality of streams is available and unavailable and switches between the plurality of data streams to determine the tick of the reference clock in response to the one of the plurality of data streams being unavailable, and wherein the tick of the reference clock is extracted from the one or more data packets in one of the plurality of streams that is available;
- a clock in communication with the optical interface, wherein the clock is disciplined utilizing the extracted tick of the reference clock to maintain a clock signal, wherein the clock tracks time using the timing characteristic;
- and
- one or more interfaces communicating synchronously utilizing the clock signal.
A system for synchronizing a clock for an optical network, the system comprising:
- a first communications node communicating packets through a data stream;
- a second communications node comprising one or more interfaces, wherein the second communications node:
- determines a propagation delay between the first communications node and the second communications node,
- receives the packets through the data stream, a timing characteristic of the packets corresponding to a tick of a clock from a reference clock,
- determines the tick of the clock from the timing characteristic of the packets,
- disciplines a secondary clock with the reference clock by adjusting the secondary clock based on a difference between times measured by the reference clock and the secondary clock from the tick of the clock and the propagation delay to generate a clock signal in response to receiving the data stream, wherein the secondary clock is disciplined based on the packets received through a secondary data stream in response to determining the data stream including the packets is unavailable, and
- sends communications requiring the clock signal from the one more interfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.