Transmission device, time transmission system, and delay measurement method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11438857-B2
Application number	US-201917296447-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 22, 2019
Priority date	Dec 4, 2018
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

A SW used in the time transmission system in which a master node and a slave node perform transmission and reception of a precision time protocol (PTP) packet via the SW and the time of the master node is synchronized based on time information of the transmission and reception includes a delay calculator that measures an intra-device delay between input and output of the PTP packet to and from the SW, and a delay information writing unit that appends the intra-device delay measured by the delay calculator to a packet subsequent to the PTP packet, and outputs the appended packet to an output destination of the PTP packet.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A transmission device used in a time transmission system in which a time synchronization packet is transmitted and received between time synchronization devices via the transmission device, and time of each of the time synchronization devices is synchronized based on time information of transmission and reception of the time synchronization packet, the transmission device comprising one or more processors, configured to:
measure an intra-device delay between input of the time synchronization packet to the transmission device and output of the time synchronization packet from the transmission device,
wherein measuring the intra-device delay comprises:
generating a first pulse signal at a timing when the time synchronization packet is input to the transmission device and a second pulse signal at a timing when the time synchronization packet is output from the transmission device, and
measuring the intra-device delay based on a time difference of i) the first pulse signal that is the timing when the time synchronization packet is input and ii) the second pulse signal that is the timing when the time synchronization packet is output; and
append the intra-device delay to a packet subsequent to the time synchronization packet, and output the packet appended with the intra-device delay to an output destination of the time synchronization packet.

2. A time transmission system comprising:
a plurality of the transmission devices according to claim 1 ; and
the time synchronization devices, wherein
when one of the time synchronization devices receives the time synchronization packet transmitted from another one of the time synchronization devices that is a counterpart for time synchronization and the packet appended with the intra-device delay measured by each of the plurality of the transmission devices on a transmission path of the time synchronization packet,
the one of the time synchronization devices is configured to subtract the intra-device delay in each of the plurality of the transmission devices from an arrival time of the time synchronization packet to correct the arrival time of the time synchronization packet to a corrected arrival time not involving the intra-device delay, and calculate an offset value indicating a gap of a clock of the one of the time synchronization devices using the corrected arrival time.

3. A delay measurement method performed by a transmission device used in a time transmission system in which a time synchronization packet is transmitted and received between time synchronization devices via the transmission device, and time of each of the time synchronization devices is synchronized based on time information of transmission and reception of the time synchronization packet, the method comprising:
measuring an intra-device delay between input of the time synchronization packet to the transmission device and output of the time synchronization packet from the transmission device,
wherein measuring the intra-device delay comprises:
generating a first pulse signal at a timing when the time synchronization packet is input to the transmission device and a second pulse signal at a timing when the time synchronization packet is output from the transmission device, and
measuring the intra-device delay based on a time difference of i) the first pulse signal that is the timing when the time synchronization packet is input and ii) the second pulse signal that is the timing when the time synchronization packet is output; and

appending the intra-device delay to a packet subsequent to the time synchronization packet and outputting the packet appended with the intra-device delay to an output destination of the time synchronization packet.

Assignees

• Nippon Telegraph & Telephone

Inventors

• Arai Kaoru
• Sakuma Hiroki
• Nakagawa Masahiro
• Tsuboi Shunichi

Classifications

• H04W56/004 Primary

  compensating for timing error of reception due to propagation delay · CPC title

• G06F1/14

  Time supervision arrangements, e.g. real time clock · CPC title

• G04G7/00

  Synchronisation (radio-controlled time-pieces G04R) · CPC title

• H04L7/00

  Arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter {(synchronisation of generators of electric oscillations or pulses H03L7/00)} · CPC title