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FSMLabs, a premier provider of enterprise real-time and timekeeping technology, today announced support for the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) standard in its flagship TimeKeeper™ product. Adding PTP Version 2 to TimeKeeper opens a route for companies conducting low latency transactions, especially in financial services, to increase competitive edge and get ahead of new regulatory requirements, by seamlessly upgrading time services while taking advantage of advanced networking equipment.
FSMLabs TimeKeeper helps capital markets firms deploy critical applications across clusters, among data centers and over wide-area networks, for high-frequency and low-latency trading, market data streams and other transactions. PTP enhanced TimeKeeper precision timekeeping, accurate to five microseconds or less on standard networks, adds credibility to trade communications among inter-parties, and forms a solid foundation for robust on-the-fly decision making in trading programs, precise latency measurement, and reliable audit trails.
Precision Time Protocol (PTP), as defined by IEEE 1588-2002 and 1588-2008 standards, provides a highly accurate time synchronization protocol.PTP support is now being incorporated into a wide variety of network infrastructure equipment and FSMLabs TimeKeeper will be able to leverage that support for greater precision time measurement, while eliminating the need for customers to endure disruptive network changes. TimeKeeper can improve precision of existing Network Time Protocol (NTP) based networks and can allow mixed mode operation as PTP is brought online.
“Major network players such as Cisco, Intel, Juniper and Marvell are all incorporating PTP into next-generation hardware and all our financial trading customers are demanding support for this emerging standard,” noted Victor Yodaiken, CEO, FSMLabs. “As hardware vendors roll out PTP-capable servers, routers and network cards over the next 12-18 months, TimeKeeper will be there to help FSMLabs customers realize immediate benefit.”
Widespread interest in PTP in the financial services market reflects growing recognition of the critical importance of timekeeping and distribution. FSMLabs anticipates near-term deployment of PTP-compliant hardware, middleware and applications in the financial services industry. By taking advantage of PTP support in networking hardware, TimeKeeper can deliver end-to-end, enterprise-wide time accurate to two microseconds or less.
“TimeKeeper PTP support also delivers accurate timing with no hardware support and automatically takes advantage of hardware timestamping, when present, to make TimeKeeper even more accurate,” says Cort Dougan, FSMLabs chief technology officer (CTO). "In addition, TimeKeeper PTP lets customers retain existing NTP-based time distribution networks in operation as they migrate selected systems over to PTP."
FSMLabs industry-leading TimeKeeper saves customers money and speeds deployment by providing ubiquitous microsecond-accurate time without needing additional hardware at every network node. Moreover, TimeKeeper lets customers mix-and-match NTP and PTP, permitting re-use of existing infrastructure and mitigating risk in rolling out new timekeeping technology, infrastructure and applications.
