White Rabbit -> Status
Status
The White Rabbit project was started in 2008 by Javier Serrano and his colleagues. From the start it has been a collaborative effort where everyone works together to make a working solution.
By summer 2012 we had built 18-port switches and used the SPEC hardware as end nodes and had made a demonstration program where one could see that the WR protocol lived up to its promises. For small systems where a single end node is sufficient, software has been written to run the White Rabbit protocol between two SPEC boards and associated digital I/O FMC mezzanines.
Since then many institutes (notably GSI) have also built WR end
nodes.
Many users are building test systems to evaluate the
performance for use in their upcoming applications, while some are
already deploying it for actual use in their systems. The switches and
the end node boards are available from industry.
We publish one newsletter per year and also organise a yearly workshop to keep developers and users abreast with the latest developments.
There is still work to be done, but globally the main work is now in the following projects:
- Work on standardisation of the protocol (WR Standardization project)
- WR enable different mezzanine cards (ADC)
- White Rabbit eXtensions for Instrumentation (WRXI)
Major events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 15-02-2008 | White Rabbit workshop 1. Project start. |
| 27-10-2008 | White Rabbit workshop 2. |
| 31-03-2009 | Review of Switch MCH card v1. |
| 20-07-2009 | White Rabbit workshop 3. Demonstration of a stabilized link. |
| 01-04-2010 | Switch MCH card v2 PCB ready. |
| 28-06-2010 | Report on measuring propagation delay in FPGAs builds groundwork. |
| 08-10-2010 | WR switch PTP compliance tested in ISPCS 2010 plugfest. |
| 10-12-2010 | First developer meeting. Basic Ethernet switching demonstrated. |
| 14-04-2011 | 4th WR Workshop. PTP working on a WR node. |
| 02-09-2011 | WR Demonstration package documented (SPEC-Switch-SPEC). |
| 19-09-2011 | 5th WR Workshop. |
| 05-03-2012 | CERN received 4 WR V3 switches. |
| 22-03-2012 | 6th WR Workshop. |
| 01-05-2012 | The first deployment of a system based on White Rabbit synchronization technology was successfully done in May 2012 in Gran Sasso and CERN for the CERN Neutrino to Gran Sasso (CNGS) measurements. |
| 23-05-2012 | White Rabbit presented at IEEE 802.1 (AVB Gen 2) meeting in view of standardization. |
| 08-06-2012 | Mini WhiteRabbit network with two SPEC cards documented (SPEC-SPEC). |
| 28-09-2012 | White Rabbit PTP extension proposed to be included in revision of IEEE PTP standard at ISPCS (document, presentation). |
| 27-10-2012 | 7th WR Workshop. Showing the final production version of the switch. |
| 17-01-2013 | White Rabbit Starting Kit available. |
| 24-01-2013 | White Rabbit switch V3.3 passes all CE marking tests (power, electrical safety, labels, EMI). |
| 21-02-2013 | GSI, Germany received the first production batch of V3.3 switches. |
| 25-04-2013 | CERN, Switzerland received 10 V3.3 switches. |
| 06-10-2014 | 8th WR Workshop, CERN, Geneva (Switzerland). |
| 08-04-2015 | Standardisation process in IEEE on-going, switch gateware and software more robust, many users of WR. |
| 28-08-2015 | Release 4.2 of White Rabbit switch software, with many improvements and SNMP control. |
| 16-12-2016 | Release 5.0 of White Rabbit switch software is out. 45 improvements and extensions made |
| 07-03-2017 | Two producers of White Rabbit switch hardware. |
| 31-03-2017 | More users of WR. |
| 30-08-2017 |
MIKES, the centre for metrology and accreditation of Finland, has connected the Metsähovi Geodetic Research Station to the official time of Finland, UTC[MIKE] |
| 07-10-2017 | 1st WR Tutorial Workshop, Barcelona (Spain) |
| 28-06-2018 | 2st WR Tutorial Workshop, Beijing (China) |
| June-2018 | The first major beam time using WR-based timing system at GSI (134 WR nodes, 32 WR switches) |
| 06-10-2018 | 10th WR Workshop, Geneva (Switzerland) |
| 16-06-2020 |
WR standardization is completed. The IEEE1588-2019 is published incorporating White Rabbit as High Accuracy Profile/Options |
17 June 2020