Precision Time Protocol (PTP)

There are a number of computer applications that benefit from having highly accurate time. There are three protocols in popular use to address this need: Precision Time Protocol (PTP) version 1, PTP version 2, and Network Time Protocol (NTP). This article explains Steadfast’s PTP offerings. More information on our NTP offering is provided in this article.

At the heart of our time synchronization offering is a PTP Grandmaster and NTP Stratum 1 server. This system is designed and maintained by FSMLabs, which has 15 years of experience in high performance and critical response time applications. The system leverages the cluster of atomic clocks transmitting from the Global Positioning System (GPS) to maintain accurate clock information. For any brief periods where the GPS signal lock is lost, the system leverages a number of NTP stratum 1 and 2 servers from both inside our network and from the internet.

Steadfast’s offering involves adding our PTP server directly on the customer’s VLAN, which eliminates the overhead of network routing. The PTP server then provides frequent, low latency updates from its clock. Due to limitations inherent in the timing accuracy on virtual machines, PTP services are only available to colocation and dedicated server customers. Any cloud customers that have time sensitive applications are recommended to upgrade to a dedicated server.

It is important to note that PTP v1 and PTP v2 are very different protocols. Devices and software configured to use PTP v1 will not understand PTP v2, and vice versa. We recommend selecting PTP v2 if it is supported by your devices and software.

To make arrangements to get PTP services from Steadfast (starting at $100/mo), please contact your account manager or sales@steadfast.net; be sure to indicate if you need PTP v1 or PTP v2 service. If you are already assigned your own customer VLAN and have any unused IP addresses assigned to you, please specify which local IP address should be assigned to our PTP server.

Please note: Steadfast strongly recommends disabling any PTP-aware features on switches. These features may cause more harm than good, resulting in problems that are difficult to debug. To get the best sync, we recommend turning these features off.

For customers that do not need the frequent updates provided by PTP, we provide NTP stratum 1 and 2 servers. More information about these are available in this article.