articleschannelstagsspacestoolkit
Meta Engineering

Simple Precision Time Protocol at Meta

View Original
thumbnail

Summary:

  • Meta has implemented Simple Precision Time Protocol (SPTP) to improve time synchronization in data centers.
  • SPTP eliminates complexity in the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) protocol while maintaining hardware compatibility.
  • SPTP reduces network communication and eliminates the need for client and server state machines.
  • SPTP uses a three-packet exchange process, including delay requests, sync packets, and announce packets.
  • After a successful SPTP exchange, standard PTP formulas are applied to calculate mean path delay and clock offset.
  • Meta uses a clock ensemble method to improve timing information and reliability.
  • The overall precision and reliability of SPTP data depend on the number of reliable and in-distribution clocks in the ensemble.