High-security NTP timing and synchronisation servers from Microsemi
These servers are GNSS (navigation satellite) locked, often with miniature-atomic-clock internal holdover to provide very high level timing and time stamping (nanosecond accuracy) to all forms of synchronous system. They must be secure in providing accurate time without reference to any other (network) connection, and be resistant to any form of hack or attack.
Microsemi has added the SyncServer S600 and SyncServer S650 are in the SyncServer S6xx series of Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers, providing a highly secure, accurate and flexible timing and frequency platform for synchronising network elements and mission-critical electronics systems in enterprise information technology (IT) applications such as Internet protocol (IP) telephony and physical security and government instrumentation applications such as satellite communications and defence operational infrastructure. Clock accuracy is typically better than 10 nanoseconds to universal time.
Third-party comment is offered by by Jeffry Dwight, president of Greyware Automation Products, a provider of time synchronisation, management, and auditing software for Windows. “The new SyncServer raises the bar for accurate time synchronisation with hardware-based time stamp support, which we found significantly reduced jitter and latency in time served, without losing accuracy. Installation was also much more flexible than any other GPS/GNSS unit we’ve tested.”
The new series features SyncServer S600, a security-hardened NTP time server with Microsemi’s NTP Reflector technology for robust security, accuracy and reliability of network time services, and the SyncServer S650, a highly versatile timing and frequency system with the company’s FlexPort technology for multiport, user definable output signal configuration. The SyncServer S600 is designed for enterprise IT customers managing corporate networks in industries such as financial services and healthcare, while the SyncServer S650 is ideal for electronics system engineers synchronizing mission-critical, system-level instruments.
The features mentioned refer to an architecture in which the network-facing task of responding to time requests is taken up by an FPGA-based sub-system which can run at line speed with its functions in hardware. It separates the respnse task from the server’s CPU, so that the CPU cannot be stalled by request overload such as a DNS attack; the FPGA front-end handles any such attempt simply by answering all legitimate requests (which its speed permits) and ignoring any ill-formed ones.
Flexport indicates the use of re-configurable hardware to enable any port to be set to accommodate any protocol (changed on the fly if necessary) to increase operational flexibility and reduce the hardware options a user might need to hold.
Microsemi adds; “According to the 2014 US State of Cybercrime Survey, organisations use a gamut of security technologies to protect network operations. Time plays a vital role in determining the critical “when” of several key security technologies. Survey respondents cited intrusion detection (62 percent), log monitoring to identify intrusion attempts (49 percent) and security event analysis (40 percent) as technologies used for network protection. Without accurate time synchronisation to UTC across the network, the effectiveness of these tools in securing the network becomes marginal.
“SyncServer S600 comes with four 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) local area network (LAN) ports, each port equipped with hardware time stamping, multiplying the network configuration possibilities. All ports are equipped with high resolution hardware time stamping, and the S600 is NTP and precision time protocol (PTP) ready in a multiport PTP configuration. A simple software update and license purchase/installation will be available in a future software release.
As a superset of Microsemi’s SyncServer S600, its SyncServer S650 provides all the features of the SyncServer S600, as well as additional offerings. Building on the company’s unique and advanced FlexPort timing technology, it delivers unprecedented flexibility in very precise time and stable frequency synchronization in a price competitive commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution.
Microsemi; www.microsemi.com/syncserver-s600 and www.microsemi.com/syncserver-s650
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