Mellanox Technologies, Ltd.

Bar Shapira

Dotan David Levi

Natan Manevich

Ariel Almog

Wojciech Wasko

Thomas Kernen

Arnon Sattinger

Liron Mula

Eitan Zahavi

Avraham Ganor

Maciek Machnikowski

Ofir Sadeh

Jonathan Oliel

Artiom Tsur

Reuven Kogan

In one embodiment, a processing system includes an interface controller to receive a data signal from a remote link partner over a link, and recover a clock signal from the received data signal, frequency generation circuitry to receive the recovered clock signal, and output a local clock signal responsively to the received recovered clock signal, wherein the interface controller is configured to drive a transmit symbol rate responsively to the local clock signal, and a digital control loop including the interface controller and the frequency generation circuitry, wherein the interface controller is configured to identify a clock drift, generate a digital control signal responsively to the clock drift, and send the digital control signal to the frequency generation circuitry, which is configured to adjust a frequency of the local clock signal responsively to the digital control signal in order to reduce the clock drift.

Hybrid clock synchronization

In one embodiment, a synchronized communication system includes a plurality of network devices, and clock connections to connect the network devices in a closed loop configuration, wherein the network devices are configured to distribute among the network devices a reference clock time from any selected one of the network devices.

Boundary clock synchronized loop

A system for maintaining a Precision Time Protocol (PTP) hardware clock, the system being operative in conjunction with a network device which is external to the system, the system comprising a controller to receive information characterizing a network peer oscillator frequency, wherein the information was extracted from an RX symbol rate, and to adjust the PTP Hardware Clock's frequency responsive to the information characterizing the network peer oscillator frequency.

Controller which adjusts clock frequency based on received symbol rate

In one embodiment, a communication system includes network devices, each comprising a network interface to receive at least one data stream, a given network device being configured to recover a remote clock from the at least one data stream received by the given network device, a frequency synthesizer to generate a clock signal and output the clock signal to each of the network devices, wherein the given network device is configured to find a clock frequency differential between the clock signal and the recovered remote clock, and provide a control signal to the frequency synthesizer responsively to the clock frequency differential, the control signal causes the frequency synthesizer to adjust the clock signal so as to iteratively reduce an absolute value of the clock frequency differential between the clock signal and the recovered remote clock.

Scalable synchronization of network devices

In one embodiment, a device includes a hardware clock to maintain a clock value, a hardware counter to maintain an estimation of a dynamic error bound of the clock value, and a clock controller to intermittently discipline the hardware clock responsively to a remote clock, advance the hardware counter at a rate responsively to a clock drift, and adjust the hardware counter responsively to the hardware clock being disciplined.

Clock error-bound tracker

A system is disclosed that includes two or more network elements, each comprising a Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Hardware Clock (PHC) that is adjustable based, at least in part, on physical layer frequency information.

In one embodiment, a synchronized communication system includes a plurality of compute nodes, and clock connections to connect the compute nodes in a closed loop configuration, wherein the compute nodes are configured to distribute among the compute nodes a master clock frequency from any selected one of the compute nodes.

Clock synchronization loop

A synchronized communication system includes a plurality of network communication devices, one of which is designated as a root device and the others designated as slave devices. Each network communication device includes one or more ports and communications circuitry, which processes the communication signals received by the one or more ports so as to recover a respective remote clock from each of the signals. A synchronization circuit is integrated in the root device and provides a root clock signal, which is conveyed by clock links to the slave devices. A host processor selects one of the ports of one of the network communication devices to serve as a master port, finds a clock differential between the root clock signal and the respective remote clock recovered from the master port, and outputs, responsively to the clock differential, a control signal causing the synchronization circuit to adjust the root clock signal.

Growing community of inventors

Tel Aviv, Israel

Bar Shapira