A high definition timing synchronization function is described. In an embodiment, a wireless station generates a time stamp at a higher resolution than can be broadcast within a standard time stamp field in a frame. The generated time stamp is divided into two parts: the first part being included within the time stamp field and the second part being included within a vendor specific field in the same frame. The frame is transmitted by the wireless station and received by other wireless stations in the wireless network. If the receiving wireless station has the capability, it decodes both the time stamp field and the vendor specific field and recreates the higher resolution time stamp. This higher resolution time stamp is then used to synchronize the receiving wireless station and the transmitting wireless station by resetting a clock or by storing time stamps and corresponding clock values.

A frequency synchronization method includes: receiving, by a slave clock, a first pulse signal and a second pulse signal; determining, by the slave clock based on a first phase difference, a second phase difference, a first delay, and a second delay, that a frequency offset of the slave clock relative to the master clock is equal to a first frequency offset, where the first phase difference is a difference between a phase of a third pulse signal generated by the slave clock and a phase of the first pulse signal received by the slave clock, and the second phase difference is a difference between a phase of a fourth pulse signal generated by the slave clock and a phase of the second pulse signal received by the slave clock; and calibrating, by the slave clock, frequency of the slave clock based on the first frequency offset.

A method for transmit timestamp autocalibration includes generating a calibration pulse for calibrating a transmit timestamp in a transmitting device. The method further includes applying the calibration pulse to a transmit data pipeline in the transmitting device. The method further includes sampling a transmit timestamp when the calibration pulse reaches a timestamp sample triggering location in the transmit data pipeline upstream from an egress point of the transmitting device. The method further includes measuring a latency between a time that the calibration pulse reaches the timestamp sample triggering location and a time that the calibration pulse reaches a location downstream from the timestamp sample triggering location. The method further includes generating an adjusted timestamp based on the measured latency and inserting the adjusted timestamp into a data packet to be transmitted from the transmitting device.

A data capture module includes a first port configured to receive first data transmitted from a first component to a second component of a substrate processing system, a second port configured to received second data transmitted from the second component to the first component, a first data stream forwarding module configured to duplicate the first data, forward the duplicated first data to the second port, and output the first data, and a second data stream forwarding module configured to duplicate the second data, forward the duplicated second data to the first port, and output the second data. The first port is configured to transmit the duplicated second data to the first component and the second port is configured to transmit the duplicated first data to the second component. A data compression module is configured to compress the first and second data. Data storage is configured to store the compressed data.

There is provided mechanisms for transmission of timestamp information. A method is performed by a transmitter device. The method comprises obtaining a first timestamp. The method comprises inserting a protected representation of the first timestamp in a payload field of a message. The message is a precision time protocol message. The method comprises timestamping the message by inserting a second timestamp in a timestamp field of the message. The method comprises transmitting the timestamped message to a receiver device. There is also provided mechanisms for reception of protected timestamp information. A method is performed by a receiving device.

A high definition timing synchronization function is described. In an embodiment, a wireless station generates a time stamp at a higher resolution than can be broadcast within a standard time stamp field in a frame. The generated time stamp is divided into two parts: the first part being included within the time stamp field and the second part being included within a vendor specific field in the same frame. The frame is transmitted by the wireless station and received by other wireless stations in the wireless network. If the receiving wireless station has the capability, it decodes both the time stamp field and the vendor specific field and recreates the higher resolution time stamp. This higher resolution time stamp is then used to synchronize the receiving wireless station and the transmitting wireless station by resetting a clock or by storing time stamps and corresponding clock values.

A network packet processing method includes: by a processor of the network device, generating a first predetermined packet, and providing the first predetermined packet to a core circuit of a network device; by a packet parser of the core circuit, parsing the first predetermined packet to obtain a first parsing result corresponding to the first predetermined packet, generating a control information corresponding to the first predetermined packet according to the first parsing result, and providing the first predetermined packet and the control information to a front-end processing circuit; and by the front-end processing circuit, obtaining a first transmitting timestamp corresponding to the first predetermined packet in response to reception of the first predetermined packet, determining to write the first transmitting timestamp into the first predetermined packet or a register according to the control information, and transmitting the first predetermined packet.

A data capture module includes a first port configured to receive first data transmitted from a first component to a second component of a substrate processing system, a second port configured to received second data transmitted from the second component to the first component, a first data stream forwarding module configured to duplicate the first data, forward the duplicated first data to the second port, and output the first data, and a second data stream forwarding module configured to duplicate the second data, forward the duplicated second data to the first port, and output the second data. The first port is configured to transmit the duplicated second data to the first component and the second port is configured to transmit the duplicated first data to the second component. A data compression module is configured to compress the first and second data. Data storage is configured to store the compressed data.

There is provided a technique of clock managing in a packet data network implementing a time-transfer protocol. The technique comprises: modifying, by the timing-server, a timestamp record to enable a controllable access to data informative of the least significant part of clock-informative data (CLSP data), wherein modifying the timestamp record comprises modifying the least significant part of the timestamp record (RLSP) to comprise the CLSP data in an encrypted form or to comprise values substituting, in a predefined manner, the CLSP data; transferring the modified timestamp record to all timing-clients, wherein CLSP data are transferred in a controllable access manner; enabling access to the CLSP data merely to authorized timing-clients among the plurality of timing-clients; and enabling the authorized timing-clients to obtain the CLSP data and synchronize the respective clocks using the CLSP data together with data informative of the most significant part of the clock-informative data.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to supporting time synchronization across a datacenter network with greater accuracy. The time synchronization includes both software based and hardware based time synchronization mechanisms to provide more precise time synchronization across various nodes in the datacenter network. The software based mechanism can provide the initial coarse time synchronization while the hardware based mechanism can provide the subsequent finer time synchronization.