Last Friday the final 1 month approval period ended for the class C and D clocks, and the enhanced SyncE clocks. These specifications are now finalised, marking a major milestone in the development of the “enhanced 5G” synchronization infrastructure.
In total, the ITU have now specified six new enhanced clock types aimed at what G.8271 calls “class 6 applications”, which cover the co-operative radio techniques required for 5G mobile networks. The previous generation of clocks targeted class 4, or 1.5us accuracy.
The new clock types are:
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Enhanced PRTC (G.8272.1) – the core network time server standard.
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Enhanced PRC (G.811.1) – the core network frequency server standard.
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Class B PRTC (G.8272) – the high-accuracy distributed network time server.
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Class C T-BC and T-TSC (G.8273.2) – the high-accuracy boundary clock and slave clock specification for backhaul and midhaul networks.
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Class D T-BC (G.8273.2) – the very-high-accuracy boundary clock and slave clock specification for fronthaul networks.
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Enhanced EEC (and enhanced OEC) – the enhanced physical-layer frequency clock for SyncE and SyncO networks.
This completes the clock infrastructure for high-accuracy applications such as 5G. While the network limits still have to be confirmed, these clocks allow a full network to be built out to meet the 5G needs.
Tim Frost
Strategic Technology Manager
