The Namex Consortium and the TOP-IX Consortium have signed an agreement for the provision of the Time as a Service (TaaS) service, marking an important step forward in the collaboration between two of the leading Italian Internet Exchange Points (IXPs).
The official announcement was made today, The official announcement was made today, Wednesday 19 June, from the stage of the Veneto leg of the Fiber Telecom Wholesale Winery Tour 2024.
Time as a Service
The TaaS service, based on the Precise Time Protocol (PTP) and Network Time Protocol (NTP), on the infrastructures of Namex and TOP-IX, guarantees greater security compared to similar services delivered via satellite systems (e.g., GPS). This is a fundamental requirement for mission-critical applications such as broadcasting, smart grid power networks, telecommunications, and high-frequency financial trading.
The service was developed by TOP-IX in collaboration with its member, the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM).
Sharing of services
“This agreement with Namex allows us to extend the reach of our TaaS service, making an extremely reliable and secure time synchronization solution available outside our network as well,” comments Andrea Casalegno, Executive Director of TOP-IX. “We are excited to collaborate with Namex to advance innovation in the networking sector.”
Maurizio Goretti, General Manager of Namex, echoes this sentiment: “The collaboration with TOP-IX for the provision of the TaaS service represents a concrete achievement, the first, of the federation we established with them last year and moves towards the mutual sharing of services in a federated, secure, high-performance, and neutral environment.”
