What are White Rabbit timing systems?
Leveling up PTP timing and synchronization with White Rabbit
White Rabbit is an open-source timing protocol that builds on the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) standard to deliver sub-nanosecond accuracy. Developed by CERN and research partners, including the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, it combines packet-based techniques with hardware features like Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) and precise phase measurements. This hybrid approach minimizes network delays and keeps clocks in near-perfect sync. White Rabbit is widely used by financial institutions and researchers conducting large-scale experiments where even slight timing mismatches can impact data integrity.
Advanced open-source synchronization
White Rabbit enables financial institutions, multi-site data centers and research organizations to achieve precise PTP synchronization across thousands of distributed nodes.
By future-proofing networks with White Rabbit, organizations can achieve tighter, more reliable timing across large-scale networks.
Boosting PTP timestamping across distributed networks
White Rabbit enhances atomic clock-based time sources for precise PTP distribution, compensating for network asymmetries to ensure accuracy across large-scale infrastructures, including legal time transfer from metrology labs to customers.
Harnessing SyncE to enable unprecedented PTP accuracy
White Rabbit makes use of SyncE, ensuring all network nodes share the same clock frequency and real-time hardware measurements to track phase offsets. It constantly calibrates link delays and adjusts for temperature or cable variations, achieving unparalleled synchronization accuracy. In mission-critical fields like particle physics, where there is little margin for error and the stakes are high, the sub-nanosecond-precision White Rabbit achieves is essential to coordinate complex processes and events across vast distances. National metrology labs also use the protocol to provide third-party access to precise timing signals.
Enhancing our industry-leading grandmaster clock portfolio
The integration of White Rabbit with our timing and synchronization solutions ensures the precision needed for mission-critical applications while leveraging existing hardware to deliver a future-proof approach.
Future-proof timing with White Rabbit PTP synchronization
Our OSA 5412, 5422, 5430 and 5440 PTP grandmasters now support White Rabbit, bringing sub-nanosecond synchronization to financial institutions, data centers and research organizations. Unlike hardware-dependent implementations, our software-based approach makes precision timing more accessible. White Rabbit pushes synchronization beyond nanoseconds and into the picosecond range – an extraordinary level of accuracy where even light travels just 0.3 millimeters in a single picosecond. This breakthrough significantly enhances synchronization across large-scale infrastructures, including financial trading platforms, while enabling seamless deployment without replacing existing hardware. By future-proofing networks with White Rabbit, organizations can achieve tighter, more reliable timing across thousands of nodes.
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