Meinberg PTP Track Hound v2

Capture & Analysis of PTP Network Traffic

PTP Track Hound captures PTPv1, PTPv2 and PTPv2.1 network traffic on the configured adapters, using the main memory (RAM) for temporary storage. Detailed statistics on the counted PTP packets captured per second and in total, both for all PTP packets and for individual packet types, provide a general idea at a glance of the load structure of PTP traffic in your network.

Decoding of PTP-Specific Message Data

PTP Track Hound automatically decodes PTP-specific message data and the most commonly used TLVs. It uses this data for internal analysis and evaluation and displays it in a user-friendly format, providing detailed insight via the web interface into the data in the packets.

When viewing a PTP message in detail, hovering over any parameter in the message will highlight where the raw data is located to enable easy analysis of packet content.

The screenshot to the right shows how a PTP Management message is broken down with a Management TLV containing the Current Data Set (0x2001) of the device that sent it. An analysis of this packet allows PTP Track Hound to discover the device's current offset and mean path delay, which it then stores to generate a graph showing trends over time of both of these values.

Generation of PTP Management Messages

PTP Track Hound can be configured to periodically send out PTP Management Messages to request common PTP datasets from instances within the monitored network(s). This allows the software to draw reliable conclusions about the synchronisation status of the network, devices, and instances in a way that would not be possible by simply passively capturing passing traffic.

Management messages can be sent globally over all networking protocols, PTP versions, and (sub)domains, or you can limit them to a specific networking protocol, a specific PTP version, and/or a specific (sub)domain.

This feature requires a Professional license.

Generation of PTP Management Messages

PTP Track Hound v2 can send out event notifications as SNMP traps, e-mails (sent via SMTP), or syslog messages when predefined or highly customisable event conditions are triggered. This allows the software to be used as the central monitoring hub for timing-critical infrastructure.

Predefined alarm triggers: Capture Started, Capture Stopped, Scope Detected, Device Detected, Port Detected, Instance Detected, Port State Changed, Local Quality Changed, Grandmaster Quality Changed, Custom Alarm Triggered, Custom Alarm Cleared.

Custom alarms allow you to have PTP Track Hound monitor any parameter that is available via the REST API and generate an alarm as soon as the value of the parameter meets a specific condition, i.e., if the parameter equals/does not equal or is greater than/less than a specific value.

This feature requires a Professional license.

Comprehensive REST API

For advanced infrastructure monitoring, PTP Track Hound v2 offers a comprehensive REST API that allows practically every parameter shown in the Web Interface - and even some not available via the WebUI - to be returned in JSON format by means of HTTP or HTTPS calls.

Sending a request to a wildcard path will provide a response containing an array of results, such that a single request is often sufficient to obtain all the data of interest.

The REST API can be used not only to fetch data, but also modify the configuration and control the capture service.

This feature requires a Professional license.

Continuous Multi-Site Monitoring

PTP Track Hound v2 enables multiple independent capture services to be run concurrently in different networks or different segments of a network, and to forward captured sync traffic to one or more data collection instances. Such data collection instances will then capture and analyse the forwarded traffic as if it had been captured on one of its own network interfaces.

Communication between the remote capture service and the data collection instance can be encrypted using pre-shared keys. It is also possible to limit access to a list of allowed IP addresses (from the perspective of the PTP Track Hound instance).

If a PTP Track Hound instance is only to be used for traffic forwarding, it is possible to completely disable the evaluation of incoming traffic.

Traffic forwarding requires a Basic license.
Central data collection instances require a Professional license.