On Thu, 2 May 2019, Carsten Bormann wrote:
Why don’t data centers provide a GPS signal along with power and air
conditioning?
Installing a distribution amplifier for 1.5 GHz is not rocket science.
(Or an Ethernet with IEEE1588 precise time, but that is probably asking too
much.)
They should :-)
I tried to include time (i.e. Buiding Integrated Timing System) as part of
the basic data center services (hvac, power, access control, etc) when I
worked at Equinix many, many years ago. Your data center operator can
install its GPS (or other time source) antennas, drive the building master
clock, and distribute time to customers using several different protocols.
For folks with firewall/security concerns, the building master clock can
drive non-Internet protocols (IRIG-B, IEE1588 PTP, etc) or connections in
addition to NTP. You can still have your own NTP server. The difference
is instead of a GPS antenna connection, your clock box uses the BITS
connection as one of the time sources.
Unfortunately, I was ahead of my time and customers (and sales people)
didn't really understand the advantages. Yes, the DC operator can screw up
the BITS just like the DC operator can screw up the power, hvac and access
control systems. Everyone wanted a separate GPS antenna, and the sales
people made more commission selling space on the antenna platform :-(