Marvell Asia Pte., Ltd.

Olaf Mater

Xiongzhi Ning

Lukas Reinbold

Steffen Dolling

Timothy See-Hung Lau

Peter Weber

A network includes a first plurality of nodes operating in a first clock domain based on a first clock source, a second plurality of nodes operating in a second clock domain based on a second clock source, and synchronization circuitry accessible to both of the clock domains without requiring network traffic between the clock domains. The synchronization circuitry is configured to periodically calculate a drift rate between the time of day in the respective clock domains. Each node in one of the clock domains is configured to, when sending a message to a node in the other of the clock domains, calculate a time of day in the other of the clock domains based on an actual time of day in the one of the clock domains and the drift rate, and to include, in the message to the node in the other clock domain, the calculated time of day.

Synchronization of clock domains on a data network

A network element, for use in an automotive network in a vehicle, includes one or more ports, packet processing circuitry and a validation data collector. The one or more ports are configured for communicating over the automotive network in the vehicle. The packet processing circuitry is configured to receive packets from the automotive network via the one or more ports, the packets including time-protocol packets, to process the received packets, and to forward the processed packets to the automotive network via the one or more ports. The validation data collector is configured to derive, from at least some of the time-protocol packets that are processed by the packet-processing circuitry, validation data indicative of compliance of the network element with a vehicle-safety requirement, and to make the validation data accessible from outside the network element.

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Linkenheim-Hochstetten, Germany

Olaf Mater