Network Time Source Health Monitoring with Holdover Failover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Networks face challenges in maintaining synchronous timing among nodes when time sources, such as GNSS or PTP, fail or degrade, leading to network connection errors and application functionality issues.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a monitoring system that tracks time source health using GNSS and PTP reports, provides event notifications, and determines actions to switch to backup sources or handover user equipment to nodes with reliable time sources, ensuring timing resilience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single time source is used for network synchronization, then the network structure is simple and easy to manage, but the reliability deteriorates when the time source fails or degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by establishing backup time sources and monitoring mechanisms before failures occur. The network node is configured with alternative time sources and the monitoring system is set up in advance to detect degradation, enabling proactive switching before synchronization is compromised.
Solution Approach 2:
A monitoring system acts as an intermediary between the time source and the network synchronization function. This intermediary monitors the health of time sources and facilitates seamless switching between primary and backup sources, isolating the synchronization function from direct exposure to time source failures.
2Reliability
If backup time sources are pre-configured for all nodes, then the reliability improves during failures, but the device complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of uniformly configuring backup time sources at all network nodes, the system applies local quality by selectively deploying monitoring and backup capabilities based on the criticality and specific needs of individual nodes. Not all nodes require identical backup configurations, optimizing resource usage while maintaining reliability where most needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring system is designed with multi-functionality, serving multiple nodes and time sources simultaneously. A single monitoring instance can track the health of multiple time sources across the network and coordinate switching operations, reducing the total number of redundant components needed while maintaining comprehensive coverage.
3Measurement precision
If real-time monitoring of time source health is implemented, then the detection speed improves, but the energy consumption and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system employs periodic action by checking time source health at predetermined intervals rather than continuously. This approach maintains adequate detection accuracy for synchronization purposes while significantly reducing energy consumption compared to continuous monitoring, as the periodic checks are sufficient to detect degradation trends without constant resource expenditure.
Data Source
AI summary
Method, apparatuses, and computer program products provide means for monitoring time sources for nodes of a network and providing timing resiliency solutions. An example method includes: establishing time synchronization within a network comprising a plurality of nodes using a time source; receiving an indication regarding at least one of degradation or failure of the time source for at least one node; receiving an indication regarding at least recovery of the time source for the at least one node; and determining, within the network, an action to be taken to upon failure at the at least one node in response to the at least one of the degradation or the failure of the time source for the at least one node, where the action to be taken comprises instructing the at least one node to leverage either hold over functionality or a backup time source.