System and method for controlling timing in a distributed digital cross-connect system

摘要

A timing system (100) for coordinating the components of a distributed digital cross-connect system (10) is provided. The timing system (100) includes a master timing system (102) that receives a network timing reference (98, 99) and generates a master timing signal. A distributed services node timing system (104, 106) is connected to the master timing system (102) and receives the master timing signal. The distributed services node timing system (104, 106) then embeds a timing signal in a data transmission frame (150). Two or more digital cross-connect timing systems (108) are connected to the distributed services node timing system (104, 106) and receive the data transmission frame (150). The digital cross-connect timing systems (108) retrieve the embedded timing signal from the data transmission frame (150).