Precision Time

I see in the EPT June 2023.3 What's New? release readiness notes that Amsterdam is now serving up Precision Time services in Europe.  Are there other Equinix locations that can provide time services? 

Just announced: If you have a Fabric login and billing account, you can order Equinix Precision Time through the Fabric Portal. Just follow the Quick Connect prompts, and with a few clicks, your new time service is provisioned and ready to go. Both PTP and NTP protocols are supported, for both Standard and Enterprise tiers. Want more information? See the steps in Order Precision Time with Quick Connect.

Equinix Precision Time 2022.6With this release, Equinix Precision Time adds support for resellers and their sub-users in the Precision Time portal flow within the Equinix Customer Portal (ECP).Reseller SupportEquinix resellers can now sign into the Precision Time portal in ECP to place orders and provision new Precision Time services for their sub-account end users. In addition, resellers can now use the portal make changes to the time services used by their sub-accounts. With this new support available in the Precision Time workflow, resellers can efficiently manage the time service needs of their customers.More information about this new feature, including tips for reseller and sub-account use of CRH/AM, is available in Resellers.  

Here are some of my take ways from the latest blog. Transactions that used to take a few seconds now happen in the millisecond and microsecond range—and before too long, applications and systems will need to operate in the realm of nanoseconds. Precise time synchronization for IT systems keeps getting more important. Distribution of servers, storage systems, networking, and private and public clouds creates significant challenges around synchronizing system clocks. Equinix Precision Time provides timing services over Equinix Fabric, so if you already own a port on the Equinix Fabric network, you can connect easily to Equinix Precision Time services. The world of time synchronization is evolving quickly as applications get faster and faster. Technological advancements around smart grids, 5G and 6G networks and IoT devices like autonomous vehicles underscore the importance of more precise, secure time synchronization. You can find the full article here

Equinix Precision Time 2022.5 is available October 10, 2022. This release of Equinix Precision Time provides enhanced authentication support.   Multiple MD5 Keys Available in NTP Enterprise In Network Time Protocol (NTP) Enterprise configurations, authentication for multiple MD5 keys is now supported. With this release of Equinix Precision Time, up to 25 MD5 authorization keys and passwords can be added to an NTP Enterprise service.   Learn more about Equinix Precision Time on Docs and Readiness!

Equinix Precision Time 2022.4 is available August 8, 2022. With this release, Equinix Precision Time provides an additional authentication feature, new PTP profile options, and integration with the context switching support provided by the Equinix Customer Portal (ECP).   MD5 Authentication for NTP MD5 authentication is now supported in Network Time Protocol (NTP) Enterprise configurations. To set up this feature in a Precision Time service, an authorization key and password are required.   Unicast and Hybrid Profiles Available Users of Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Standard and Enterprise configurations can now set up Unicast profiles with specified grant times. Multicast and Hybrid profile options are also available.   Context Switcher Integration This release integrates Equinix Precision Time with the Context Switcher, which provides an easy way to switch between projects on the Equinix Customer Portal (ECP). This Identity and Access Management (IAM) feature is a

I need to install a GPS antenna for timing services at an IBX. What is the process?

Does Equinix Precision Time offer any kind of monitoring or alert notification? 

How do I know if my server NIC supports PTP? 

Is the Precision Time service protected by high availability? 

What is the SLA threshold for NTP service? 

What is the SLA threshold for PTP service? 

What are some basic settings for an NTP client?

What are some basic settings for a PTP client?

What's the difference between the software timestamp feature and the hardware timestamp? 

What are some NTP clients that I can use in a Linux system? 

What are some PTP clients that I can use in a Linux system? 

How does the client-server handshake work for PTP and NTP? 

Is any of the additional equipment in the path not "PTP aware”? 

Why does the mean path delay vary so much from one sample to the next? Does this suggest network congestion or path asymmetry?

Why is the mean path delay so high (hundreds of microseconds)? 

I don't want to connect to London. And due to latency, I can't use the LD (London) service location for a FR (Frankfurt) connection. We measure latency in ms or less. Can I get service locally from FR? 

Does Precision Time always include a redundant connection? 

Is a 1G port sufficient, or do I need a 10G port for my Precision Time service? 

One VLAN is included in my monthly recurring charge (MRC). Must I pay extra for the 1G port?