SyncE — physical layer frequency synchronization

SyncE Fundamentals

Synchronous Ethernet recovers a frequency reference from the physical layer of the Ethernet signal, similar to how legacy SONET/SDH networks distributed clock through the line rate. Each SyncE-capable Ethernet port contains a clock recovery circuit that extracts timing from the received bit stream. This recovered clock is used to discipline the local node oscillator, which in turn drives the transmit clock on all SyncE-enabled ports. The result is a physical layer frequency distribution chain where each node locks its frequency to the upstream source. SyncE provides frequency synchronization…