SYNC SERIES

CPRI 2ppb & Clock Wander Measurement

Using TIE to Verify the 2ppb Link Contribution Limit & Clock Stability

(For VeEX TX320SM, RXT-3900)

January 2017 | Rev. A00

P/N: D08-00-025

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

Notice:
The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.

The CPRI Layer 2 test mode, Wander Measurements, MTIE/TDEV Analysis and other features described in this document
require software licenses. The built in GNSS receiver and chip-scale atomic clock are hardware options and may not be
available for all products.

The test sets and functions described in this document use software and intellectual property (IP) either developed by
VeEX Inc. or licensed by VeEX Inc. from third parties. The software is confidential and proprietary of VeEX Inc. The software
is protected by copyright and contains trade secrets of VeEX Inc. or VeEX's licensors. The purchaser of this device agrees
that it has received a license solely to use the software as embedded in the device, and the purchaser is prohibited from
copying, reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembling the software.

For more technical resources, visit the VeEX Inc. website at www.veexinc.com.

VeEX Inc. makes no warranty of any kind regarding this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. VeEX shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental
or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

Safety precautions should be observed during all phases of operation of the

instrument. The instrument has been designed to ensure safe operation;
however, please observe all safety markings and instructions. Do not operate the
instrument in the presence of flammable gases or fumes or any other combustible
environment. VeEX Inc. assumes no liability for the customer's failure to comply
with safety precautions and requirements.

Optics Safely: The test set platform displays a laser warning icon when the TX laser source is active to alert the user about
a potentially dangerous situation. It is recommended to:
1. Deactivate the laser before connecting or disconnecting optical cables or patch cords.
2. Never look directly into an optical patch cord or CFP, XFP or SFP connector interface while the laser is enabled. Even
though pluggable optical transceivers are typically fitted with Class 1 lasers, which are considered eye safe, optical
radiation for an extended period can cause irreparable damage to the eyes.
3. Never use a fiber microscope to check the optical connectors when the laser source is active.

For assistance or questions related to the use of VeEX products, please contact our local representative or contact VeEX
directly through the web site, calling or e-mailing our Customer Care department for customer support. Before contacting
our Customer Care department, have the product serial number and software versions ready. Locate the serial number
for a test platform or module on the back of the chassis. The platform and modules serial numbers, as well as software
versions, can be found in the test set >Utilities >About menu. Please provide this information when contacting VeEX
customer support.

VeEX Inc.
Phone: +1 510 651 0500
E-mail: CustomerCare@veexinc.com
Web: www.veexinc.com

©Copyright VeEX Inc. All rights reserved. VeEX, VePAL are registered trademarks of VeEX Inc. and/or its affiliates in the
USA and certain other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective
companies. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted electronically or otherwise without written
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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

CPRI Clock Wander Measurement

Using TIE to Verify the 2ppb Link Contribution Limit & Clock Stability

Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI), also known as a “Fronthaul” technology, is a fiber optics interface
commonly used by cellular radio base stations in Distributed Antenna System (DAS) or Cloud-Radio Access
Networks (C-RAN) deployments. It connects a centralized Base Station Baseband Unit (BBU) or Radio Equipment
Controller (REC) to the Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) or Radio Equipment (RE).

The official CPRI specification version 7.0 (2015), Section7/Annex B, define certain Synchronization and Timing
requirements for CPRI-compliant modules. Although it is not quite clear what the 2ppb limit in requirement
#18 (R-18) means or how to test/verify it on the field, it is understood that it represents the impact of all jitter
and phase noise in the total frequency offset contribution between the Master and Slave. Also, R-18A requires
the verification of Clock Lock between the RE slave receive port and the master. Wander Measurement is a
good practical way to verify the effects of all phase noise and frequency offset contributions at the slave side.

Introduction to Wander
Wander or Time Interval Error (TIE) is a periodic relative phase
error measurement used to evaluate the long-term stability
and accuracy of a clock signal. The signal under test (SUT) is a
CPRI link coming from the REC and the test set acts as a slave
to recover the clock and measure it. Wander is defined by ITU-
T G.810 as “The long-term variations of the significant instants
of a digital signal from their ideal position in time”

TIE measures the instantaneous phase variations on the signal

under test (SUT), compared to a known and trusted frequency
reference and plotted for long-term analysis. Wander focuses
on the low frequency components of the phase noise, from
10Hz and below. This <10Hz doesn’t refer to signal’s frequency
variations, it refers to the rate at which the SUT’s phase
changes with respect to the reference’s. Clock wander may be
caused by very small (parts per trillion) frequency differences
between the clocks of network elements, misconfiguration,
component quality, failure, or by slow changes in the relative
phase of two clock signals due to ambient temperature
changes, among other factors. These TIE values can be used to
accurately measure frequency accuracy.

 MTIE (Maximum Time Interval Error): Is the peak-to-peak

variation of TIE within a defined observation intervals τ.
 TDEV (Time Deviation): Measures the spectral content of the
wander graph. It’s a function of observation interval τ.
 Frequency Offset: Indicates the degree to which the SUT’s
clock frequency deviates from its ideal (locked) value.
 Frequency Drift: This rate measures how the SUT’s
frequency offset varies over time (i.e. frequency stability).

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

Reference Clock is Required

Wander measurement requires access to the slave’s recovered clock (SUT) and a traceable (or calibrated)
frequency reference (REF). In a Lab environment, users may have access to a copy of the Primary Reference
Clock (PRC) or GPS-disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) driving the Master, to be used as a reference at the Slave side.
When access to a PRC is not available, users must have access to an accurate clock source that is in sync with
the PRC driving the BBU/REC, such as the test set’s built-in GPS-disciplined chip-scale (Cs) Atomic Clock option.

Frequency Offset Contribution Limits for CPRI Links

Frequency accuracy and stability are very important in radio frequency (RF) applications, especially for the
tightly-spaced cellular spectrum. For example, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) wide area
base stations must transmit each modulated RF carrier with a minimum frequency accuracy of ±50ppb (per
ETSI 3GPP TS36.104) and CPRI mandates that the individual contribution of a CPRI fronthaul link shall be less
than ±2 ppb (CPRI v7.0 R-18). All REs must receive and recover a clock traceable to the main REC clock.

Wander measurement can be used to verify the combined long-term frequency accuracy (offset < ±2 ppb) and
stability of a CPRI link. If the Network Element (NE) has a recovered clock output port, it is recommended to
measure the Wander and Phase at the physical output on the Slave device, as it represents the true
performance of the entire link or network, including network elements and environment. In certain occasions,
it may be necessary to use a slave emulation function to quickly verify the link’s readiness before installing the
RE/RRH or for troubleshooting purposes.

Measuring Recovered Clock Wander and Frequency Offset

For this application, the test set offers a CPRI Slave Emulation function in which it acts as a terminal to verify all
the necessary handshakes and that basic synchronization can be attained. In that process, the test set recovers
the clock from the link, so users can run a wander measurement to check its overall frequency accuracy and
long-term stability.

To measure the Wander or Phase Error at the CPRI output port of a network element or at the end of a link,
you must configure the test set to act as a CRPI Slave first.

1. Touch the application button, on the top-left side of the screen, to launch the >CPRI/OBSAI >CPRI Layer 2
test application and press OK. Wait for the application to load and start.

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

2. Once in the Main Menu, tap on Setup. A test signal structure is shown describing the main CPRI link settings,
from the physical rate (on top) to test payload (at the bottom). Touch each of these building blocks to set
each of the layers to match the interface under test (e.g. 2.4576 Gbit/s).

3. Connect the optical port from the test set (SFP, SFP+ or XFP) to the port under test, press the Laser ON
button and verify that all soft-LEDs on the left are all green. (If there is no loopback or another test set at
the far-end, generating test traffic, change the test Pattern recognition to live mode by setting Out of
service = OFF.)

4. If possible, it is recommended to run a BER test to verify that all the settings and the link are ok. Press the
Start button to begin the BERT (a RUN icon shows on the top bar while the BER test is running). Verify that
the Results pages show no Errors or Alarms present in the link. You may leave the BERT running to keep the
link active and to monitor any events that may occur during the wander test. (The two tests are fully
independent.)

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

5. Use the escape button to go back to the Main Menu and select the Wander application button.

6. On the Setup tab, use the Measurement Clock Source pull-down field to select whether the
frequency reference is External or the optional internal Atomic 10MHz. If an external source is
selected, then select the matching clock type on the Clock External field and connect the matching
reference signal to the CLK (SMA) port. Use a flexible BNC-to-SMA adapter cable is necessary.

The optional built-in Atomic 10MHz can be used as an accurate frequency reference
at remote sites, if it is disciplined by GNSS. If you plan to use this internal reference,
then connect the SMA antenna cable to the GNSS receiver instead. Discipline the
oscillator, to correct any small frequency offset, before starting the wander test.

7. Set the Mode = Timed if you want to limit the test to an exact amount of time.

8. Insert a FAT32 USB memory stick into one of the test set’s USB ports, wait until the icon appears on the
top-right corner of the screen, then Enable the Save TIE. The recommended Sampling Rate is 30 TIE
measurements per second. Enter the desired File Name (no spaces) for the test result and press Apply. It is
recommended to use meaningful file names, perhaps including the date for future reference (e.g. “Cell02-
20161231”).

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

9. Press Start. The Wander measurement starts and all the samples are saved in the USB memory for future
analysis. Users can see the real-time TIE results Numerical or Graphical formats. To access the most recent
TIE behavior graphical mode, tap on the TIE Monitor Graph tab.

The TIE samples should start at 0ns and it is expected to slowly vary (wander) over time, but in a well-
synchronized link it may stay around 0ns and if it starts to diverge in a positive nor negative direction, the
changes should be much smaller than 2ns every second (2ns/s = 2ppb).

For frequency accuracy (offset) verification you may run the test for just a few minutes (e.g. 10 min) to get
enough data to provide a good indication of frequency accuracy. But, if you are also interested in frequency
stability, a long-term test (>> 1 hour) is recommended. 24-hour and 72-hour tests are common when trying
to capture the link behavior under hot and cold conditions (day and night). Run-Time TIE/MTIE/TDEV
analysis can be performed by tapping on the Analysis button.

10. Once enough samples have been taken, you can press Stop. You can tap on the Analysis button to access
the run-time graphical TIE/MTIE/TDEV and Masks analysis function.

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

This flat downward example shows a stable frequency source (straight line) with a negative frequency offset
(ramp behavior). The test set automatically measured a frequency offset of -9.582E-5 ppm or -0.09582 ppb
(-9.582E-11), which is much smaller than the required 2ppb limit.

Users can tap on the TIE graph to position a cursor, then use the   arrow keys to adjust the position to
the desired sample and read individual TIE values.

For long-term tests, users can zoom in to view more details or limit the analysis to a specific time window
of interest. To do this, enter the desired beginning time in the Start(s) field, enter the finish time in the
End(s) field and press the Set Range button to apply. Use the Analysis button in the MTIE & TDEV Analysis
tab to recalculate based on the selected window.

11. Now you can click on the MTIE & TDEV Analysis tab to select the appropriate Mask, run the analysis and
generate reports. Uncheck the  TDEV box if you are only interested in MTIE.

 The Save button saves the current Mask setting.

 The Convert to PDF button saves a PDF report, of the current measurement, directly to the USB stick.
 Use the Measurement button to go back to the Wander Measurement screen, to can run other tests.

CPRI Wander Measurement Specifications

Test Signals: 0.614, 1.229, 2.458, 3.072, 4.915, 6.144, 9.839 Gbit/s CPRI (and 10.137 Gbit/s in RXT-3900)
Ext. Reference: 1.544 Mbit/s, 2.048 Mbit/s, 1.544 MHz, 2.048 MHz, 10 MHz
Int. Reference: Atomic 10 MHz. (Free-run < ±0.05ppb or disciplined to GPS << 0.001ppb) - Optional
TIE Resolution: 3 ns (measurement)
Sampling: 1, 5, 10, 30 samples/s (30 recommended)

Post Analysis (TIE, MTIE, TDEV and Frequency Offset)

Built-in Post-Analysis (Test Set): If you want to reanalyze previous tests stored in the USB memory, you can use
the test set, without having to launch any application, set any configuration or disturbing any other tests or
tasks currently running. Insert the memory stick containing the TIE or TE samples into the test set and go directly
to >Utilities >Files >USB >mtie-results, open the folder with the name you gave the test of interest (e.g.
My_CPRI_Wander_Test), select the mtie file and press the Open button at the bottom-right corner of the

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

screen. The same post-analysis interface would come up and you will be able to select the sections (time
window) to analyze, as well as the different masks.

PC Post-Analysis (Windows®): You can also use VeEX’s Wander Analysis PC software to run the MTIE and TDEV
analysis with better screen resolutions and generate reports. The PC application can be downloaded, free of
charge, from the link below. It does not require installation and can be kept in the same USB memory stick with
the TIE files, for greater portability (i.e. run the analysis from any PC or laptop).
www.veexinc.com/SecureFile/VeEX_Wander_Analysis.zip

The example below includes a 2ppb mask (thin line) to verify that the required limit was not exceeded during
the test. A PASS/FAIL assessment is given to the test.

Timing/Phase Accuracy, Latency and Round Trip Delay

Timing and Phase Accuracy and Stability

Time synchronization accuracy and stability have similar issues related to the need of meeting certain error
allowance for the entire signal chain, based on fronthaul requirements or the overall system. ETSI 3GPP
TS36.104 specifies that in certain modes of operation the Time Alignment Error (TE) at the base station antenna
ports shall not exceed 65ns. Although measuring time error at the RF port may not be practical, and it is beyond

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

the scope of this document, that limit drives the tight CPRI requirements for latency accuracy, as well as placing
upper limits for any amount of uncorrected asymmetry.

If there is access to a copy of the slave’s recovered timing signal (1PPS clock output), you can use the test set’s
Clock Wander & Phase Measurement function, by selecting an empty test app and going to >Additional Tests
>Clock Wander & Phase Meas. and select 1PPS Absolute Phase Error test mode. The built-in GNSS and Atomic
Clock options can be used to synchronize the test set to the standard UTC second

Latency and Round Trip Delay

CPRI v7.0 R-19 and R-20 specify fronthaul downlink latency measured with ±8.138 ns accuracy and round trip
delay (RTD) with ±16.276 ns accuracy. These requirements are driven by the need for accurate phase or time
synchronization at the air interfaces. Since CPRI is mainly based on fiber optics cables, the concept of symmetry
is assumed in the one-way delay (OWD) calculation (RTD/2).

The CPRI Layer 2 test mode in the test set can also be used to accurately measure CPRI RTD, by emulating the
Master side and if the Slave’s internal loop delay is known. The CPRI Slave emulation measurements, described
at the beginning of the procedure, reports the internal delay its electronics. This can be used to “calibrate” it
out from the Master’s round trip delay, so it only measures the link-related latency. To read the current internal
Toffset value in nanoseconds, go to >Results >CPR RTD in the test set emulating the slave.

On the test set emulating the Master, go to >Results >CPRI RTD and enter the slave’s internal delay, as a
correction factor, in the Setup section (top). Then, the Results (bottom) will show the accurate round trip delay.

The example test above was performed with a simple 7,194m fiber link setting, for illustrative purposes. The
link has a theoretical round trip delay of 2 x 7,194m x 4.89ns/m = 70,357.3 ns. (4.89ns/m is the pace at which
the single-mode laser light propagates through the fiber optic cable.)

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

Acronyms & Abbreviations

1PPS One Pulse Per Second (clock signal aligned NOC Network Operations Center
to the standard second) ns nanosecond (1E-9 s, 1/1,000,000,000th of
3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project a second)
BBU Base Station Baseband Unit OBSAI Open Base Station Architecture Initiative
BER Bit Error Rate OCXO Oven Controlled quartz Crystal (Xtal)
BERT Bit Error Rate Test Oscillator

BNC Bayonet Neill–Concelman (popular OWD One-Way Delay (Latency)

unbalanced coaxial connector) PDF Portable Document Format
CLK Clock Signal ppb Parts-per-billion (1E-9 or 1x10-9)
CO Central Office ppm Parts-per-million (1E-6 or 1x10-6)
CPRI Common Public Radio Interface ppt Parts-per-trillion (1E-12 or 1x10-12)
C-RAN Cloud-Radio Access Networks PRC Primary Reference Clock (a calibrated and
Cs Cesium or Caesium (oscillator) traceable frequency standard)

CSAC Chip-Scale Atomic Clock PRTC Primary Reference Time Clock (a clock that
provides timing and time, aligned to the
CSV Comma Separated Value file format UTC or TIA standard)
(compatible with spreadsheets)
RAN Radio Access Network
DAS Distributed Antenna System
RE Radio Equipment
DOCXO Double Oven Controlled quartz Crystal
(Xtal) Oscillator REC Radio Equipment Controller

DUT Device Under Test Rb Rubidium (oscillator)

ET Elapsed Time (test time) REF Reference

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards RRH Remote Radio Heads

Institute RT Remaining (test) Time
E-UTRA Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access RTD Round Trip Delay
FAT32 32-bit File Allocation Table (format RX Receiver port
commonly used in USB memory sticks) SMA SubMiniature version A (unbalanced
GNSS Global Navigation Satellite Systems coaxial connector). Don’t confuse with
GPS Global Positioning System (GNSS provided reverse-polarity SMA-RP
by the USA Department of Defense) Sync Synchronous, Synchronization,
GPSDO GPS (GNSS) Disciplined Oscillator Synchronized

ITU-T International Telecommunication Union - SUT Signal Under Test

Telecommunication standardization sector TDEV Time Deviation
Lab Laboratory (evaluation, conformance or TE Time Error
development) TIE Time Interval Error
LTE Long-Term Evolution UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications
MTIE Maximum Time Interval Error System
NE Network Element UTRAN UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network

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CPRI Clock Wander Measurement User Guide

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About VeEX®
Founded in 2006 by test and measurement industry veterans and strategically headquartered in the heart of
Silicon Valley, VeEX Inc. provides innovative Test and Measurement solutions for next generation networks,
services and communication equipment.

With a blend of advanced technologies and vast technical expertise, VeEX’s products diligently address all
stages of network design, verification, deployment, maintenance, field service turn-up, troubleshooting and
integrate legacy and modern service verification features across DSL, Fiber Optics, WDM, CATV/DOCSIS,
Mobile backhaul and fronthaul (CPRI/OBSAI), next generation Core & Transport Network, Fibre Channel SAN,
Carrier & Metro Ethernet technologies and Synchronization.

The VeEX team brings simplicity to verifying tomorrow’s networks.

© 2016-2017 VeEX Inc. All rights reserved.

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