EvolvingSynchronizationNeed

Within the world of mobile networks, two simultaneous trends can be

observed:
1. The migration of backhaul from SDH to IP/Ethernet to provide the required
cost reduction in the face of explosive data growth;
and
2. The migration of radio access technologies from 2G/3G to LTE (4G) to
increase the peak data throughput for enhanced user experience.
Both of these trends are creating new challenges for mobile operators.
Providing an accurate timing reference is one of the most significant
technical and operational challenges for engineering and deployment of LTE radio
access technology. The accuracy requirement is dependent on the support of
specific applications and features of LTE. For example, if the operator wants to
operate LTE in Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum, both the phase
synchronization and the frequency synchronization become mandatory. Similarly,
for LTE operation in Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) spectrum, the phase
synchronization becomes mandatory if the operator wants to enable LTE-Advanced
features such as Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) transmission and reception for
enhancing the peak data rates and spectral efficiencies at cell boundaries, or wants
to use enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) to minimize the
interference from the small cell layer to the macro layer.
Therefore, the migration to LTE, and moving forward to LTE- Advanced,
creates significant challenges for mobile operators as they design their backhaul
timing networks to meet the stringent frequency (<16 ppb) and phase (<1.5 uS)
synchronization requirements. Investment in small cells and LTE networks is being
made to increase capacity and coverage when synchronization fails, both
objectives are lost.
There are three primary techniques to meet the stringent phase and time
synchronization requirements of LTE-TDD and LTE-A networks: GNSS
everywhere, PTP with full on-path support, and PTP with partial on-path support
and/ or Edge Grandmaster.
For macro cell applications, deploying only GNSS at every cell leads to
expensive holdover mechanisms. Moreover, due to external vulnerabilities of
GNSS and the need for a more resilient sync architecture it is essential to have
alternate (back-up) sources of sync such as packet-based IEEE 1588 (PTP) and
physical-layer-based Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) in addition to GNSS.
For small cells, having multi-sync architecture enables ease of installation,
high availability and reduced operational as well as capital costs. Acquiring time
and phase via GNSS at the macro aggregation point or at the cell edge by placing
an Edge Grandmaster or mini Grandmaster and then distributing sync via IEEE

1588 PTP to all the small cells to hold time and phase is an efficient sync
architecture that achieves the twin objectives of cost and resiliency.
There are three fundamental reasons why deploying an Edge Grandmaster
provides operational advantages in small cell deployments.
A) First, the number of hops between the Master and the Slave (in the
small cell) will be much reduced, typically less than 4. Good slave clock recovery
algorithms, such as those developed by Qulsar, allow for this limited number of
hops to be PTP-unaware. By not requiring the intervening switches/routers
between the master and slave clocks to be Transparent Clocks (TC), or Boundary
Clocks (BC), reduces the cost of the overall network equipment very significantly.
B) Second, by using the Edge Grandmaster as the sync source for a cluster
of small cells is by far the most efficient approach to maintain the inter-small-cell
phase synchronization to tight limits within the cluster.
C) Third, only the Edge Grandmaster needs to support any significant level
of holdover in the event of GNSS outage because the entire cluster of small cells
homing into the Edge Grandmaster for timing remain in mutual synchronization.
In scenarios where small cells are deployed to enhance indoor coverage, for
example dense urban venues such as stadiums, convention centers, shopping
malls, enterprises and multi-tenant buildings where, generally, Ethernet cabling
exists to provide traffic backhaul, packet-based IEEE 1588 (PTP) synchronization
techniques are the best choice. Deploying an inexpensive embedded local
Grandmaster at the premises is a very cost effective way of distributing sync via
existing in-building LAN networks.
Edge Grandmasters (Local Gateway Clocks) ensure accuracy by deploying
closer to the clients, and thereby reducing the hops and putting problem parts of
the backhaul network behind them. Edge Grandmasters include a GNSS reference
to meet G.8272 PRTC timing requirements and perform much like centralized PTP
Grandmaster equipment commonly deployed today, except they are scaled and
cost optimized for deployment closer to the network edge.
Edge Grandmasters also include a PTP input capability, allowing PTP signal
exchanges with a centralized Grandmaster to continue as a precise time reference
should the GNSS reference be impaired. During periods of normal operation, the
Edge Grandmaster will track the time offset between the GNSS calculation and the
calculation based on PTP with the centralized grandmaster. When GNSS is lost,
the Edge Grandmaster can apply that offset to the PTP calculation and continue to
provide a level of accurate timestamps that the backhaul network alone could not
support. While GNSS is present the Edge Grandmaster can also monitor the
quality of the PTP reference provided by the centralized Grandmaster to decide
whether it is suitable for use in the event of GNSS outage.
We therefore recommend the approach of deploying Edge Grandmasters
which is the opposite of a centralized timeserver strategy. Many low-cost
Grandmaster units can be placed close to the end user equipment the Edge of
the network where the timing accuracy is required. The time-delivery service
becomes more redundant and overall performance increases due to the lower
number of hops between the grandmasters and the subscriber units. The Edge

Grandmaster constitutes an easy and straight forward way to deploy the PTP into
an existing network without the need for installing new PTP-aware switches
(Transparent Clocks and/or Boundary Clocks) everywhere in the network.
With the growing demand of PTP, a number of equipment vendors are
integrating PTP solutions into their product. A typical network will possibly deploy
PTP Grandmaster, PTP Edge Grandmaster and Slave / Client devices from
different vendors.
This allows network owners and operators numerous benefits including:

Not dependant on single sole-source vendor.

Increased price competition.

Better services.

Faster network rollout.

Network design flexibility.

No proprietary solutions. Standards (ITU-T / IEEE) compliant products ensure

interoperability between sources.