Practicalities and Analysis of Using PTP Over 5G Systems

5G systems are becoming more and more ambiguous and widespread, making them a suitable choice for remote production and wireless mobile studios scenarios, extending the local OB Van facilities, and replacing the traditional RF cameras. However, the nature of the 5G systems can often make them tricky to use for high-performance media over IP due to inherited jitter and path asymmetries. In such cases, the synchronization between media sources can be challenging. The presentation explores the possibility of using IEEE 1588, Precision Time Protocol for such applications. With 3GPP Release 16, the 5G System specifications include a dedicated time synchronization enabler tailored for IEEE 1588. It describes lab sessions performed by the 5G RECORDS consortium members testing the performance of the PTP over 5G with and without the dedicated time synchronization support. The presentation also describes the open-sourced testing setup used by the team and the methodology developed. The presentation will draw conclusions on the performance and the synchronization quality when using PTP over various 5G systems, analyze the results from the lab trials and explore possible practical applications.