Time Stamps with GPS Accuracy

Leipzig, June 13, 2024 - Leipzig-based company Allegro Packets has added two new expansion cards to its portfolio. The two expansion cards are now available. They use the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to measure time stamps.

GNSS currently offers the most reliable and precise method for network time synchronization. The system is satellite-based and also synchronized with ground stations. This enables an extremely high absolute timestamp accuracy for the packets of at least 100 nanoseconds. The advantage of this system is that it is not affected if the Internet NTP service fails. The GPS cards, like the standard 4-port SFP28 expansion card, support hardware time stamping with a relative accuracy of 10 nanoseconds.

The two new GPS cards include a 2-port QSFP28 expansion card (100 G) that supports 1, 10 or 25 G with a QSFP28-to-SFP28 converter and a 4-port SFP28 expansion card (1/10/25 G). The cards replace the previous nanosecond and GPS-supported SFP+ time stamp cards for network speeds of 1 M, 1 G or 10 G.

The possible applications of the new expansion cards at a glance:

• excellent time stamps for analyses,
• the measurement of one-way latencies between separate Allegro devices, even over very long distances,
• for applications with high time sensitivity, such as banking, financial and industrial services (e.g. retail, automation) or telecommunications.

The GPS timed capture expansion cards are full PCI expansion cards and therefore only fit into the 1200/3200, x300/x310, and x400/x410 series.

To use GPS time stamping, simply install the card and set the time synchronisation type to GNSS/GPS in the user interface. The delay of the antenna cable can also be set manually. More information on the integration and use of the expansion cards can be found in the webcast by our Managing Director Klaus Degner.