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IEEE 1588 PTP Introduction
The IEEE 1588 standard is known as “Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol for Networked Measurement and Control Systems” or “PTP” for short. PTP defines a procedure allowing many spatially distributed real-time clocks to be synchronized through a “package-compatible” network (normally Ethernet). The technology behind the IEEE 1588 standard was originally developed by Agilent and was used for distributed measuring and control tasks. The challenge was to synchronize networked measuring devices with each other in terms of time so that they are able to record measured values and provide them with a precise system time stamp. Based on this time stamp, the measured values can then be correlated with each other.
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