The Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is a protocol used to synchronize clocks throughout a computer network. Here the devices are connected to a dedicated, high-speed Ethernet LAN segments which is interconnected by switches. The switches are used to capture timestamps upon the passage of an Ethernet frame (also termed as message) at the physical layer. On a local area network (LAN), it achieves clock accuracy in the sub-microsecond range. That is the PTP timescale is defined in seconds and nanoseconds.

PTP is the implementation of IEEE 1588. The system is more suitable for measurement and control systems and the work includes engineering collaboration and performance optimization because of high accuracy. That is PTP can be used most often to synchronize device clocks in special-purpose industrial automation and measurement networks.

The new version of PTP, known as PTP Version 2, improves accuracy, message security, precision and robustness but is not backward compatible with the original 2002 version. PTP can provide message security in the form of symmetric key cryptography and accuracy can be achieved by using timestamps. The exact timestamp is noticed or captured for each encrypted message by the switches connected to the device and it is performed while messages are passing through the physical layer. The messages are encrypted for acquiring more security.

A simplified PTP system frequently consists of ordinary clocks connected to a single network. No boundary clocks are used. A grandmaster is elected and all other clocks synchronize directly to it.

The transparent clock modifies PTP messages as they pass through the device. Timestamps in the messages are corrected for time spent traversing the network equipment. This scheme improves distribution accuracy by compensating for delivery variability across the network.

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