Timing preservation for network communications

A network element, comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive communications signals of two different communications types;
• a timing analyzer configured to:
• obtain a local reference clock (LRC) representing a timing domain of a network element;
• detect two different received reference clocks (RRCs) representing two different timing domains corresponding to the communications signals of the two different communications types;
• and
• for each received communications signal,
• determine a corresponding quantized value (QV) based on a frequency difference or a phase difference between the LRC and the RRC of the timing domain for the communications type of the particular received communications signal;
• a timing generator configured to generate, for the particular received communications signal, a transmit reference clock (TRC) that is different from the LRC, wherein the TRC is generated based on the LRC and the corresponding QV;
• and
• a transmitter configured to output an output signal based on the particular received communications signal and the corresponding TRC.

A system, comprising:

• a plurality of network elements;
• and
• a given network element comprising:
• a receiver configured to receive communications signals of two different communications types from the plurality of network nodes;
• a timing analyzer configured to:
• obtain a local reference clock (LRC) representing a timing domain of a network element;
• detect two different received reference clocks (RRCs) representing two different timing domains corresponding to the communications signals of the two different communications types;
• and
• for each received communications signal,
• determine a corresponding quantized value (QV) based on a frequency difference or a phase difference between the LRC and the RRC of the timing domain for the communications type of the particular received communications signal;
• a timing generator configured to generate, for the particular received communications signal, a transmit reference clock (TRC) that is different from the LRC, wherein the TRC is generated based on the LRC and the corresponding QV;
• and
• a transmitter configured to output an output signal based on the particular received communications signal and the TRC for the received communications signal.