InES gPTP (IEEE 802.1AS Software Stack)

The protocol software represents a portable implementation of the TSN standard IEEE 802.1AS for Ethernet networks (full-duplex, point-to-point links - Clause 11 of the standard).
Currently available is an evaluation and full license for the IEEE 802.1AS-2011 version. The new version IEEE 802.1AS-2020, released in the year 2020, is currently under development.

Features

• gPTP Time-Aware System (Time-Aware End Station or Time-Aware Bridge) according to IEEE 802.1AS-2011.
• Generic code allows porting to a wide variety of hardware and software platforms.
• An extensive API enables the connection of applications.
• The Human Machine Interface (HMI) allows evaluation, configuration, and monitoring of the gPTP software.
• Programmed in ANSI C.
• Extensive documentation.

Programming Language and Design

The programming language of the gPTP software is ANSI-C / C-99. The design of the gPTP stack is object-oriented, although C is not an object-oriented programming language.

Portability to different target systems

The gPTP software consists of a system-independent protocol engine and an OS abstraction layer. The Protocol Engine is completely system independent; the OS Abstraction Layer must be adapted to the HW/SW environment. Due to the clean structuring of the OS Abstraction Layer, the software is quickly and easily ported to different systems.

Application Programming Interface (API)

The API is the interface to the user application. It provides functions for configuration as well as monitoring of the stack. The connection to the management system of the host (for example SNMP/MIB) is done via this interface.

Human Machine Interface (HMI)

Developers configure and monitor PTP at runtime. For example, the state machine can be monitored continuously, the current values of the internal DataSets can be displayed, and parameters can be changed.

Licensing

Two types of licenses are available:

• Evaluation license: source code and documentation for evaluation purposes, limited in time to 6 months.
• Source code buy-out, unlimited in time and for any platforms in the licensee's portfolio.

The license includes:

• the complete source code of the Protocol Engine and the OS Abstraction Layer
• a reference implementation for Linux (IOL on NXP Layerscape® LS1028A)
• Extensive documentation
• one (evaluation license) or two (source code buy-out) days support by InES

Support for IEEE 802.1AS-2020

Support for the new IEEE 802.1AS-2020 standard is currently under development. If you are interested, please contact us.