As Ethernet and IP continue to win the battle for transport and networking technology there are challenges in migrating legacy services and building new converged services leveraging these lower cost-per-bit networks. One of the significant gaps is that native Ethernet does not have an embedded timing distribution capability, which is required for certain applications. Examples of the need for precision timing include:

• Service providers looking to upgrade their Mobile Backhaul networks to facilitate the deployment of 4G and wireless traffic growth migrating from TDM-based technologies to IP/Ethernet
• Large enterprises, including financials and utilities, with applications like stock ticker feeds and Smart Grid
• Network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) developing IEEE 1588 devices such as transparent clocks, boundary clocks, master clocks, and slave clocks, as well as packet forwarding equipment that use Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) to distribute timing

Primarily, there are two proposed solutions for providing frequency synchronization directly over Ethernet; IEEE 1588-2008 precision timing protocol (PTP) and SyncE. These technologies can be deployed separately or in conjunction across mobile backhaul network devices to provide the timing accuracy required for voice and other time-sensitive applications.

1. IEEE 1588-2008 PTP: As transport migrates from TDM networks (SONET, T1, and E1) to packet networks (IP/Ethernet), the IEEE 1588-2008 PTP is becoming a common method for delivering timing and synchronization throughout the network. 1588 provides frequency, phase, and time-of-day synchronization between master and slave over an IP/Ethernet network allowing the migration away from TDM.
2. SyncE: Defined by the ITU-T, SyncE is a standard for the distribution of clock frequency over Ethernet links using the Ethernet Synchronization Messaging Channel (ESMC) protocol. Networks using ESMC can ensure the same bit rate, providing frequency synchronization but not phase or time-of-day.

Ixia is helping to build the information base engineers need to develop and execute plans for testing functionality, timing accuracy, performance, and scalability. Ixia’s IxN2X and IxNetwork products have been used in dozens of public SyncE and 1588 interoperability tests and lab demonstrations since 2008. Ixia is also a member of the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), which recently updated MEF 22 to include recommendations for 1588 for timing distribution over mobile backhaul networks. In addition, Ixia is working with the IEEE-ICAP to implement an industry-standard certification and testing process for 1588v2.

To learn about the key technologies verified by the certification, discover issues that may typically arise during the process, and understand what Ixia has revealed while testing these new technologies, please attend Ixia’s Testing the Functionality, Timing Accuracy, Performance, and Scalability of IP/Ethernet Networks presentation, November 3, 2011 at 11:35am, at the upcoming ITSF 2011 Time & Sync in Telecoms conference. This 9th international conference in Edinburgh will address the requirements, solutions, business models, and standards for network timing and synchronization.

In addition, Ixia has sponsored several private performance assessments of precision timing implementations. One was with Alcatel-Lucent earlier this year where we showed functionality as well as the performance of their boundary and transparent clock implementation, at scale, in the context of real-world traffic delivery. See Ixia and Alcatel-Lucent Validate IEEE1588v2 Performance for Mobile Backhaul white paper for details on this assessment.

Presenting Ixia with its 2011 World Market Share Leadership Award in Wireless Backhaul Test Equipment, Frost & Sullivan’s program manager, Olga Yashkova said, "Ixia dominates the world wireless backhaul test equipment market. The company’s leadership position is primarily attributed to its ability to develop new and advanced test equipment at early stages."

By employing its testing expertise and industry leadership in timing synchronization technology for mobile backhaul networks, Ixia aims to provide the evidence that service providers need to confidently move their mobile voice traffic from TDM to Ethernet.