8480ax01.fm Draft Document for Review January 6, 2020 11:23 pm The concept of PTP Profiles One of the goals of the IEEE 1588 PTP standards are to make it possible to set up and run a  PTP network with minimal device settings and administrative overhead. The concept of PTP  profiles makes this goal possible. PTP profiles allow organizations or industry groups to  specify a subset of options, features, and default values for protocol attributes that will meet  the performance requirements of applications and eliminate or minimize device configuration  settings. Through the use of PTP profiles, organizations can specify selections of attribute  values and optional features of the PTP standard that, when using the same transport  protocol, work together and achieve a performance that meets the requirements of particular  applications.  PTP profiles make PTP better suited for particular applications and/or industry use cases  while simultaneously adhering to the more general requirements of the IEEE 1588 PTP  standard. Profiles themselves are standardized and defined by a recognized standards  development organization (SDO) that has jurisdiction over a particular industry. Examples of  such SDOs include the IEC, IEEE, OETF, ANSI, and the ITU. PTP profiles not only change some aspects of the standard, but they also further extend the  standard via mandating some of the optional features in the standard: The IEEE 1588 PTP standards define two default profiles, one for the delay request-response  mechanism and the other for the peer delay mechanism. PTP profiles provide tremendous  flexibility in "morphing" PTP to the needs of almost any application or use case. This flexibility  has proven highly useful to the energy and telecommunications industries. As additional  profiles are developed, it will likely prove invaluable to the financial and banking industry as  well. 1. A PTP profile may define its own BMC algorithm, configuration, monitoring, and  management mechanism. 2. A PTP profile may also define use of a specific transport mechanism, use of multi-cast or  unicast, and whether end-to-end or peer-to-peer path delay mechanisms will be used.  3. PTP profiles will also define any IEEE 1588 optional components that are required,  permitted, or prohibited. 4. PTP profiles may also define completely new transport mechanisms such as optical  transport networks (OTNs) and data types. Regulatory Requirements This section provides a solid background on time synchronization regulations. This section is  important, because understanding this topic, especially the most recent regulatory changes,  will make it clear why IBM decided PTP was important technology for our IBM Z clients. The world’s financial markets, even though very dependent on the IBM mainframe, effectively  operate as high-performance distributed systems where the time stamp of any trade can have  a huge influence on the financial fortunes of millions of investors both large and small. The  integrity and trust needed for these systems requires highly accurate and traceable time  synchronization. Accurate and trusted timing plays a critical role in financial markets. Since the inception of  the direct electronic trading of financial instruments in the 1990s, the speed of financial  market transactions has increased at an exponential rate, mirroring the advances made in  CPU processing and network performance. The widespread usage of electronic trading  Appendix A. IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Introduction and Overview  117