## The concept of PTP Profiles 

One of the goals of the IEEE 1588 PTP standards are to make it possible to set up and run a PTP network with minimal device settings and administrative overhead. The concept of PTP profiles makes this goal possible. PTP profiles allow organizations or industry groups to specify a subset of options, features, and default values for protocol attributes that will meet the performance requirements of applications and eliminate or minimize device configuration settings. Through the use of PTP profiles, organizations can specify selections of attribute values and optional features of the PTP standard that, when using the same transport protocol, work together and achieve a performance that meets the requirements of particular applications. 

PTP profiles make PTP better suited for particular applications and/or industry use cases while simultaneously adhering to the more general requirements of the IEEE 1588 PTP standard. Profiles themselves are standardized and defined by a recognized standards development organization (SDO) that has jurisdiction over a particular industry. Examples of such SDOs include the IEC, IEEE, OETF, ANSI, and the ITU. 

PTP profiles not only change some aspects of the standard, but they also further extend the standard via mandating some of the optional features in the standard: 

1. A PTP profile may define its own BMC algorithm, configuration, monitoring, and management mechanism. 

2. A PTP profile may also define use of a specific transport mechanism, use of multi-cast or unicast, and whether end-to-end or peer-to-peer path delay mechanisms will be used. 

3. PTP profiles will also define any IEEE 1588 optional components that are required, permitted, or prohibited. 

4. PTP profiles may also define completely new transport mechanisms such as optical transport networks (OTNs) and data types. 

The IEEE 1588 PTP standards define two default profiles, one for the delay request-response mechanism and the other for the peer delay mechanism. PTP profiles provide tremendous flexibility in "morphing" PTP to the needs of almost any application or use case. This flexibility has proven highly useful to the energy and telecommunications industries. As additional profiles are developed, it will likely prove invaluable to the financial and banking industry as well. 

## Regulatory Requirements 

This section provides a solid background on time synchronization regulations. This section is important, because understanding this topic, especially the most recent regulatory changes, will make it clear why IBM decided PTP was important technology for our IBM Z clients. 

The world’s financial markets, even though very dependent on the IBM mainframe, effectively operate as high-performance distributed systems where the time stamp of any trade can have a huge influence on the financial fortunes of millions of investors both large and small. The integrity and trust needed for these systems requires highly accurate and traceable time synchronization. 

Accurate and trusted timing plays a critical role in financial markets. Since the inception of the direct electronic trading of financial instruments in the 1990s, the speed of financial market transactions has increased at an exponential rate, mirroring the advances made in CPU processing and network performance. The widespread usage of electronic trading 

