System and method for synchronizing telecom-related clocks across an unsynchronized point-to-point network connection

Abstract

A system and method for synchronizing clocks related to telecommunications across an unsynchronized point-to-point network connection utilizes downstream data timed using a high frequency transmission clock to transfer timing information of a central telecom-based clock from a first network node to a second network node. In an exemplary embodiment, the point-to-point network connection is an Ethernet-based connection that operates in accordance with a Gigabit Ethernet standard. The timing information of the central telecom-based clock is extracted from the transmitted data at the second network node by recovering the high frequency transmission clock and then, deriving a reference clock, which is synchronized with the central telecom-based clock, from the recovered transmission clock. The reference clock is then used to generate one or more telecom-related clocks that are used by the second network node.