Help us improve your experience.

Let us know what you think.

Do you have time for a two-minute survey?

 
 

Configure Hybrid Mode and ESMC Quality-Level Mapping Overview

You can configure hybrid mode, that is the combined operation of Synchronous Ethernet and PTP on supported platforms . When acting as a PTP timeReceiver, the router can accept any external Synchronous Ethernet clock as reference. Note that when the selected Synchronous Ethernet reference fails, the router continues to work in PTP mode.

In hybrid mode, the synchronous Ethernet equipment clock (EEC) on the MPC derives the frequency from Synchronous Ethernet and the phase and time of day from PTP.

The hybrid mode is configured on the timeReceiver. On the timeReceiver, one or more interfaces are configured as Synchronous Ethernet source interfaces.

The Ethernet Synchronization Message Channel (ESMC) quality level value is mapped to the clock class value either by mapping the PTP clock class to the ESMC quality level or by configuring a user-defined mapping of PTP clock class to ESMC quality level. The following procedures explain configuring hybrid mode with either of the modes in detail.

Platform-Specific Hybrid Mode Behavior

Use Feature Explorer to confirm platform and release support for specific features.

Use the following table to review platform-specific behaviors for your platform:

Table 1: Platform-Specific Behavior

Platform

Difference

MX Series

  • On the MX240, MX480, and MX960 routers, the hybrid mode is possible only when the PTP timeReceiver and the Synchronous Ethernet source are on the same enhanced Modular Port Concentrator (MPC) and are traceable to the same timeTransmitter.

ACX Series

  • On the ACX Series routers, the combined operation is possible only when the PTP timeReceiver and the Synchronous Ethernet source are on the same device and are traceable to the same timeTransmitter.

Configure the Router in Hybrid Mode

To configure the router in hybrid mode, you must:

  1. Configure Synchronous Ethernet options at the [edit chassis synchronization] hierarchy level:

    • Configure the auto-select mode of operation. You can select the clock source either from a free-run local oscillator or from an external qualified clock.

      When the router is configured with the auto-select option, the router chooses up to two best upstream clock sources. It then uses the clock recovered from one of the sources to lock the chassis clock. If an upstream clock with acceptable quality is not available or if the router is configured in free-run mode, the router uses the internal oscillator.

    • Configure the esmc-transmit and network-option options at the [edit chassis synchronization hierarchy level.

    • Configure one or more interfaces at the [edit chassis synchronization] hierarchy level as Synchronous Ethernet sources as needed.

  2. Configure PTP options at the [edit protocols ptp] hierarchy level.
  3. Configure hybrid mode options at the [edit protocols ptp slave] hierarchy level.