Wired Intelligent Edge

Could you please tell me someone which series of switches support PTP, (Precision time Protocol)?

Actually, speaking about ArubaOS-Switch based platforms, only the Aruba 2930M switch series - and since the WC.16.04.0004 software release - supports PtP IEEE 1588 (Transparent Clock Mode). See latest Aruba 2930M Switch Series QuickSpecs.

The solution only relates to Transparent PTP, I believe it does not relate to Boundary PTP? The 5700 switch does have boundary PTP or is that Transparent PTP?

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ben.de-clercq@hpe.com wrote: The 5700 switch does have boundary PTP or is that Transparent PTP?

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Hi! he we were discussing on PTP against HPE Aruba switch series, not against HPE FlexNetwork and/or HPE FlexFabric switch series.

Beside the fact that IEEE 1588 version 2 and IEEE 802.1AS standard profiles are supported, the HPE FlexFabric 5700 Switch Series supports these types of basic clock nodes:

1. Ordinary Clock (OC): A PTP clock with a single PTP port in a PTP domain for time synchronization. It synchronizes time from its upstream clock node through the port. If a clock node works as the clock source and sends synchronization time through a single PTP port to its downstream clock node, it is also called an OC.
2. Boundary Clock (BC): A clock with more than one PTP port in a PTP domain for time synchronization. A BC uses one of the ports to synchronize time from its upstream clock node, and uses the other ports to synchronize time to the relevant upstream clock nodes. If a clock node works as the clock source and synchronizes time through multiple PTP ports to its downstream clock nodes, it is also called a BC.
3. Transparent Clock (TC): A TC does not need to keep time consistency with other clock nodes. A TC has multiple PTP ports. It only forwards PTP messages among these ports and performs delay corrections for the messages, instead of performing time synchronization. TCs include the following types:
   1. End-to-End Transparent Clock (E2ETC): Forwards non-P2P packets in the network and calculates the delay of the entire link.
   2. Peer-to-Peer Transparent Clock (P2PTC): Forwards only Sync, Follow_Up, and Announce messages, terminates other PTP messages, and calculates the delay of each link segment

Reference: HPE FlexFabric 5700 Switch Series Network Management and Monitoring Configuration Guide (5200-4622, November 2017), page 46 (sheet 55 of 312).

Note: ironically instead the latest HPE FlexFabric 5700 Switch Series QuickSpecs (Edition 15, 18 November 2019)  the PTP - RFC 1588 - is erroneously reporting the switch series as IEEE 1855 compliant...and no specification about clock nodes type is provided.