Setting up the PTP server

Back to Provisioning Overview

Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is used to synchronise clocks throughout a network. The ADAPT payload uses this technology because it can achieve accuracy at the sub-microsecond range. The cameras in use on the ADAPT payload accept PTP (IEEE 1588) packets to ensure the images have extremely accurate time stamps.

configure ptp4l

sudo systemctl stop ptp4l
sudo nano /etc/linuxptp/ptp4l.conf
# add/edit the lines below

/etc/linuxptp/ptp4l.conf

tx_timestamp_timeout    10

Start ptp4l and review status

sudo systemctl start ptp4l
sudo systemctl status ptp4l

We would expect to see something similar to the output shown below:

ptp4l[1642.768]: port 1: INITIALIZING to LISTENING on INITIALIZE
ptp4l[1642.768]: port 0: INITIALIZING to LISTENING on INITIALIZE
ptp4l[1642.769]: port 1: link up
ptp4l[1648.777]: port 1: LISTENING to MASTER on ANNOUNCE_RECEIPT_TIMEOUT_EXPIRES
ptp4l[1648.777]: selected best master clock 48b02d.fffe.3a7004
ptp4l[1648.777]: assuming the grand master role

Note: the "assuming grand master role" line. This means we will be serving the time to the clients on the network.

Next Step