Utilizing Network Adapters for Network Timing Performance Evaluation and Monitoring, Practical Approaches and Operational Constraints

Network protocol analyzers are essential tools for professionals working in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for evaluation, monitoring, and troubleshooting purposes. Network protocol analyzers may use regular network adapters or specialized, dedicated capture hardware to collect information from the network, or they can be specialized devices. The task of network timing performance evaluation and monitoring is solved by specialized devices today, primarily due to the precision and accuracy requirements present in the application fields. However, as network timing matures and finds its applications in various fields using only specialized and also expensive devices cannot be sustained, lower cost, flexible solutions to the performance evaluation and monitoring problem must be developed. This paper investigates how regular, commercial of-the-shelf network adapters with network timing (HW timestamping, etc.) support can be applied for network timing evaluation and monitoring, investigates the system architecture options, lists implementation barriers and shows how to overcome them, and characterizes the performance limits of such solutions.