Can I choose which device on the network will become a boundary clock between PTPv2 and PTPv1 Domain?
No. The PTPv1-only Dante device with the best clock quality or the lowest MAC Address wins.
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When you use a PTPv2 device as GM (Grand Master Clock), Dante devices with supported firmware can act as a Boundary Clock between PTPv1 and PTPv2. Dante uses PTPv1 multicast by default.
Boundary Clock terminates the PTP flows, recovers the clock, regenerates a new PTP flow and provides an interface between PTP domains.
To illustrate the answer above, we will show the clock behavior using a PTPv2 device. (Merging Anubis) .This example is using an unmanaged network.
As you can see below, First, we will use the Anubis automatic setting for PTPv2 priority (Priority1=127, Priority2=128)
PTPv1 and PTPv2 are present on the network. However, all devices are synced using PTPv1 with the device called Brooklyn-3 as Leader (GM).
Now, we will enable AES67 mode in all supported devices.
In an unmanaged environment (not using Dante Domain Manager /Dante Director ), when you enable the AES67 mode, your device can be synced using the PTPv2 clock.
As you can see on Dante Controller, the preferred leader is described as an Unknown Device, meaning that a non-Dante device (Anubis ) is the Primary Leader Clock to the network.
If you move your mouse over to the device name, you can confirm the MAC address of the device.
The devices called “DVS” and “UltimoX4” do NOT support AES67 Mode (PTPv2) in this case. The device Brooklyn 3 (BK3-PDK) acts as a Boundary Clock between PTPv2 and PTPv1 domains.
Why did device BK3-PDK become the PTPv1 leader?
Ans: The first criterion is the device with the highest clock quality. If we have multiple devices with high-quality clocks, the device that has the lowest Mac address becomes Clock Master.
What happens if I check the Preferred Leader option to choose another device to act as a Boundary Clock (PTPv1 Leader) ?
The device “AVIOBT” became Leader for PTPv1 and PTPv2, and the external PTPv2 device is not acting as Leader as we want. Anubis device became a follower of the AVIOBT device.
Why this happened?
Ans: Priority settings on Anubis.
Priority 1 for AVIO is 121, and for Anubis is 127.
Now, we will change the priority of Anubis to win the clock election. (The clock with the highest priority, lowest Priority1 value, is selected as the master.)
The original configuration has been restored, with Anubis assuming the role of Leader for PTPv2 and Brooklyn-3 designated as the Boundary clock, despite an alternative device being set as Preferred Leader in the Dante Controller.
Conclusion:
To summarize, as demonstrated above, it’s not possible to choose which Dante device will become the boundary clock and provide PTPv1 for other Dante devices that don’t support PTPv2.
