TimeProvider^® 4500 Series

Operators of critical infrastructure in the 5G telecommunications, utilities and transportation markets need to upgrade their networks continuously with technology that can deliver higher processing speeds and highly accurate time that is not dependent on GPS. They need a terrestrial alternative to GPS that distributes precise time over distances reaching 1,000 kilometers and delivers increased accuracy.

Our TimeProvider 4500 (TP4500) series is the world’s first IEEE^® 1588 PTP Grandmaster with high-speed network interfaces that support up to 25 Gbps Ethernet (GbE) and the flexibility to choose from 1 GbE, 10 GbE or 25 GbE options. This innovative hardware platform also enables the highest time accuracy below one nano second.

• Latest generation of synthesizer to enable the system to move into the picosecond realm
• Latest generation of PolarFire^® SoC FPGAs for increased performance
• Increased IEEE 1588 scalability to 2,000 PTP clients at 128 packets per second
• Embedded BlueSky^® GNSS firewall for anti-jamming, anti-spoofing protection
• Supports Precision Time Protocol (PTP), Network Time Protocol (NTP) and SyncE
• Meets Primary Reference Time Clock (PRTC) Class A, Class B and enhanced PRTC (ePRTC) requirements
• Exceeds Class D for multi-domain boundary clocks and meets High-Accuracy Time Transfer (HA-TT) ITU-T specifications for sub-nanosecond accuracy (500 ps average time error over 800 km distance)
• Reliable, fanless passive thermal operation
• Redundancy via two software mechanism choices using two units, either in active/standby mode or in active/active mode
• Patented, enhanced Assisted Partial Timing Support (APTS) with Automatic Asymmetry Compensation (AAC)
• Strong security and performance monitoring
• Support for industry-specific profiles for power and Time Sensitive Network (TSN) markets
• Synchronization Supply Unit (SSU) operation mode to filter legacy signals inputs, such as E1/T1, for jitter and wander
• Zero Trust security Grandmaster with strong differentiated timing security

The TimeProvider 4500 series offers the flexibility to connect to various generations of network elements to protect earlier investments in hardware. An operator can connect the TP4500 to any combination of 1 GbE, 10 GbE and 25 GbE network devices. As network equipment is being upgraded to support a minimum of 10 Gbps, and in some cases up to 100 Gbps, the TP4500 provides the necessary high-speed bandwidth to support the requirements of the latest systems.

The TimeProvider 4500 can support up to 2,000 PTP clients. Its hardware platform enables higher IEEE 1588 scalability to support thousands of clients. Operators may not always need high capacity when using 5G mmWave technology at the edge of the network. However, C-band 5G deployments require a balance of range and capacity to be able to serve thousands of gNodeB base stations. Depending on the specific sites, the TP4500 could serve either very few or many gNodeB base stations and provide a cost-effective solution regardless of scale.

Offering extremely high time accuracy, the TimeProvider 4500 is an excellent alternative solution to GNSS. It provides a cost-effective terrestrial option that can leverage existing optical network deployments to transfer highly accurate time over a long distance, without the need for GPS installations at each node.

The TP4500 is a key product that enables the virtual PRTC (vPRTC) architecture along with the BlueSky firewall, the TimeCesium^®, the TimePictra^® and the TP4100. 

In the virtual Primary Reference Time Clock (vPRTC) architecture, to minimize the dependency on GNSS, receivers are only required in the core enhanced Primary Reference Timing Clock (ePRTC) sites where they can be protected and monitored to shield the network from the risk of GNSS jamming or spoofing threats.

The TimeProvider 4500 grandmaster implements key capabilities required to support coherent-network Primary Network Time Clock (cnPRTC) as defined by the ITU. The TP4500 is also capable of getting its time reference from national metrology labs, which decreases the need for GNSS as a source of time. It is compliant with the latest ITU extended holdover requirements to enable continued operations when GNSS is not available. The TP4500 meets ITU-T G.8271.1/Y.1366.1 (2022) Amendment 2 (01/2024) class A HA-TT to allow for sub-nanosecond accuracy over 800 km distances. This grandmaster is also capable of cesium clock ensemble for better resiliency and coherency.

The vPRTC architecture ensures redundancy via bi-directional east and west timing flows to local source clocks in aggregation sites with 100 ns of accuracy.

As a follow-on product to the TP4100, the advanced TP4500 hardware platform adds new capabilities while it supports all its predecessor’s features, allowing you to benefit from any prior investments in the TP4100 firmware. 

You can configure our TP4500 clock in the following ways:

• As a gateway clock to serve timing flow toward 5G Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) as well as for various types of input and output flexibility
• As a high-performance boundary clock to deliver high accuracy over a secure optical network—meets Class D (5 ns) accuracy and is capable of an average 1 ns accuracy, meeting 15 ns accuracy for a chain of 15 boundary clocks
• As an HA-TT clock to deliver sub-nanosecond accuracy over a secure optical network—meets Class A HA-TT (5 ns accuracy over 800 km, which equates to 500 ps average per node, assuming 10 nodes)
• In ePRTC operation mode to provide 30 ns accuracy at the source of timing chain (now capable of a 40-day holdover)
• In SSU operation mode, the TP4500 can filter the legacy inputs for jitter/wander