Meinberg PTP Client: IEEE 1588-2008 Client Software for Windows and Linux

The PTP Client software supports both standard IEEE 1588-2008 management messages and the Meinberg NetSync Monitor reverse-PTP technology, enabling the user to take full advantage of the NetSync Monitor functionality to actively measure the performance of a PTP client without having to rely on a self-reported state. Interoperability with other PTP monitoring solutions is provided by supporting the standard PTP management messages mechanism, which can be enabled or disabled in the configuration.

The Meinberg PTP Client allows to synchronize the time of Microsoft Windows and Linux servers and desktop PCs by implementing a full IEEE 1588 ordinary clock stack with software- and hardware-timestamping support. The PTP Client offers the most complete PTP feature set available for the two major operating systems by using the Oregano Systems PTP Stack as its core. Users can configure the software to work with almost any PTP Grandmaster Clock or PTP enabled network infrastructure due to its built-in support for most PTP configuration options and operational modes.

Product Description

PTP Profile Support:

Default, Enterprise, Power, Telecom, Broadcast and AVB/TSN (see Characteristics). Profile support includes any specific BMCA handling and TLVs. Support for features introduced by the upcoming IEEE 1588 revision as well as future profile updates and new profiles will be provided as an update. The Meinberg PTP Client software package for Windows comes with an easy-to-use control program that allows to check the state of the synchronization and can be used to edit the configuration file.

Software timestamping can be used on any of the supported operating systems with any OS-supported Ethernet adapter, hardware timestamping is currently supported for IEEE 1588 capable Oregano network cards on Windows. For Linux systems, hardware timestamping can be enabled for all PTP supporting network cards that use the standard PTP kernel framework (PHC).

The PTP Client has been tested on a wide range of Linux distributions and is available as an installation package that can be used with the distribution’s package manager to install, update and remove it from any system. For Microsoft Windows, an installer is provided that allows to install the software interactively or in an automatic, unattended installation. Tests with various Linux and Windows systems have been carried out on both physical hardware and in virtualized environments and showed excellent synchronization performance, for example being able to keep the system time of a Windows 2016 based server within less than 100 microseconds of UTC time.

Software Licenses

License management of the Meinberg PTP Client is available based on the MAC address of any network port that is used for PTP synchronization, volume discounts and special prices for dual- or multi-homed systems are available as well. Running the PTP Client without a valid license file will enable demo mode which turns off system time corrections after 72 hours.

Annual fees apply for software maintenance and technical support services.