On the use of white rabbit for precise time transfer in 5G URLLC networks for factory automation applications

Abstract

The implementation of 5G networks has several technological challenges, which are mainly related to the UltraReliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC). One of these challenges is precise time transfer. Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is the most widely used protocol for precise time transfer. However, PTP performance may not be sufficient in large 5G networks.In this paper, we propose the use of white rabbit as the main technology for frequency and time transfer in 5G transport networks. However, white rabbit can only be implemented in wired links, thus the time transfer performance in wireless links may not be enough for the most challenging URLLC use cases. Therefore, we propose in this paper a modification of the white rabbit protocol that can be used in wireless communications. The proposed wireless white rabbit protocol has been tested by simulations over a single carrier point to point communication system, and different channel models. The results show significant improvements of the time transfer accuracy in Line Of Sight channels compared to other common wireless time transfer approaches and a similar performance to white rabbit over wired links.