[ptpd - Help] Questions on products and licensing

[gertjan hofman]

Daniel,

We have a similar issue - our ARM based DAQ boards are running a 2.6.30 &
Debian Lenny and there is no point trying to upgrade - we have had to make
a fair number of kernel changes to support our board hardware.

I dont completely remember why we preferred the openptpd.  I seem to recall
that I found it actually easier to understand. The IXXAT code was written
in a more general structure perhaps but harder to follow.  Experiments
showed no difference, or worse,  synchronization convergence.  There might
also have something about the way OpenPTP was using a kernel feature to
timestamp the outgoing packet using the loop back interface (I could be
quite wrong here....I believe this is documented in the older Openptp
mailing list on source forge) and IXXAT was not.  While we were still
deciding whether we could make 1588 work for us, I already knew I had to
modify the OpenPTP code and I could not do this with the IXXAT code that we
had not yet paid for.  I added a lot of extra filtering on the Master to
Slave Delay,  which was showing non-stochastic spikes. We also added VLAN
capabilities so that our switches would route 1588 before any other traffic
(this really helped).  We send packets every 250 ms rather than the
official PTP v1 limit of 1 second.  I documented this is a previous e-mail
to this mailing list about 2-3 years ago.

On the other hand....IXXAT supports 1588 V2 (now - it didnt at the time).
 They were a good company to deal with, generous with lending their code.
 Presumably they solve the licencing problem for you.  These are all worth
while advantages in a corporate environment.

Cheers

Gertjan



On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 10:48 AM, Daniel Le <daniel.le at exfo.com> wrote:

>  > I evaluated it about 3 years and decided that the open source version
> had some advantages.****
>
> ** **
>
> Would you mind to share the advantages of the ptpd open source code from
> your evaluation? Are there issues with Ixxat IEEE 1588-2008 protocol stack?
>  I generally go with open source code, but this time I hesitate because
> ptpd does not support IPv6 and there is no indication it will soon.
> Commercial product also provides more support (at a cost).****
>
> ** **
>
> WRT kernel 3.X, my embedded platform currently uses 2.6.35.7 and a kernel
> upgrade is not quick job as it involves re-testing of all applications and
> infrastructure code.****
>
> ** **
>
> Regards,****
>
> Daniel****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* ptpd-bounces at lists.infradead.org [mailto:
> ptpd-bounces at lists.infradead.org] *On Behalf Of *Ronciak, John
> *Sent:* Thursday, April 05, 2012 6:05 PM
> *To:* gertjan hofman; ptpd at lists.infradead.org
> *Subject:* RE: [ptpd - Help] Questions on products and licensing****
>
> ** **
>
> > Not entirely sure what you mean.  Ixxat has had a commercial version for
> 5 years, see:****
>
> > http://www.ixxat.com/ieee-1588-stack-v2_en.html****
>
> > I evaluated it about 3 years and decided that the open source version
> had some advantages.****
>
> Yes but I was only pointing out the Linux project stuff.  Commercial
> versions have been around a long time.  The Linux one not really that long
> until now in the Linux kernel.****
>
> ** **
>
> > The kernel implementation came too late for us - I should dig into it
> some more. I seem to recall there was strong ****
>
> > reluctance at Red Hat to distribute it due to the patents issues. Is
> this no longer true ?****
>
> Since it is part of the kernel I’m assuming not.  I don’t speak in any way
> for RH.  As of yet RH has not released a kernel based on a version that
> support PTP.  That will change as the next major release happen from them.
> It will be based on a kernel that supports it.****
>
> ** **
>
> Cheers,****
>
> John****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* gertjan hofman [mailto:ghofman at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Thursday, April 05, 2012 2:48 PM
> *To:* ptpd at lists.infradead.org
> *Cc:* Ronciak, John
> *Subject:* [ptpd - Help] Questions on products and licensing****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> John,****
>
> ** **
>
> Not entirely sure what you mean.  Ixxat has had a commercial version for 5
> years, see:****
>
> ** **
>
> http://www.ixxat.com/ieee-1588-stack-v2_en.html****
>
> ** **
>
> I evaluated it about 3 years and decided that the open source version had
> some advantages.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Re license - yes,  use of the 1588 protocol, regardless of the
> hard/software will always fall under the Lucent license - at least that is
> the understanding of the lawyers of the company I work for.  Cost are not
> prohibitive.****
>
> ** **
>
> The kernel implementation came too late for us - I should dig into it some
> more. I seem to recall there was strong reluctance at Red Hat to distribute
> it due to the patents issues. Is this no longer true ?****
>
> ** **
>
> Cheers****
>
> ** **
>
> Gertjan****
>
>
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> --
> ==================================================
> Gertjan Hofman
> ghofman [at] gmail.com
>
> 604-982-3574
> ==================================================****
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/ptpd/attachments/20120406/a9b04e06/attachment.html>