ibaCapture offers the possibility of time synchronization with Precision Time Protocol (PTP). PTP is a communications protocol for synchronizing the system time of different systems (PC, PLC and other devices) in a network. The protocol is defined in accordance with Standard IEEE 1588.

In a typical PTP topology, there is one time master and one or more time slaves that synchronize to the master. The best synchronization accuracy of software-based PTP applications, as in ibaCapture, is 5 ms. An ibaCapture system is a PTP slave, it synchronizes to a PTP master in the network.

PTP settings

Switch to server configuration mode and select the node Time synchronization. Here you can enable PTP time synchronization with a tick in the checkbox. Changes will be applied when the server configuration is applied again.

Network interface

Here, choose the network interface of the ibaCapture Server to be used for time synchronization.

PTP domain

The multicast address is set using the PTP domain. There are 4 standard domains available (0 to 3), each assigned a particular multicast address in accordance with IEEE 1588.

    • 0: 224.0.1.129

    • 1: 224.0.1.130

    • 2: 224.0.1.131

    • 3: 224.0.1.132

Status

The status field shows the current status of the time synchronization.

Current master

The IP address of the time master is displayed here.

Difference between system time and received time

The received time is compared with the system time cyclically and the deviation is determined. Depending on whether the difference is more positive or more negative, a corresponding frequency adjustment of the internal system clock is calculated.

System clock frequency adjustment

The value of the frequency adjustment has been determined from the difference between the system time and the received time. Thus, a system clock ahead or behind is corrected.

Message counters

This overview shows different message counters. There is one counter per telegram type. If there is a master-slave connection, the counters should usually count up: sync, announce, delay request and delay response.