Currently, discussions are underway within the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (“IEEE”) to determine a new Timing and Synchronization for Time-Sensitive Applications in Bridged Local Area Networks standard for broadband communication, denoted as 802.1 as. As a result of these discussions, one of the issues presented to the physical layer of Ethernet defined according to IEEE standard 802.3 is how to the support time stamping requirements required under 802.1 as.
The current proposal from 802.1 as is to have a time stamp recorded in 802.3 station management for selected packets. However, how these packets are to be designated for time stamping is yet to be revealed. The current proposal under 802.1 as splits the timestamp from the actual packet being time stamped. The split produces significant problems with respect to re-associating the timestamp to the packet being timed. The association of the time stamp data and the packet is a complex post-processing task as bit-stuffing is generally considered to be an undesirable approach in high speed networks.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for time-stamping an Ethernet packet and re-associating the timestamp to the packet being timed.