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Abstract

A method of and apparatus for detecting drift between two clocks is presented. The apparatus comprises a hardware implementation of a clock drift evaluator. The evaluator monitors received packets associated with a data stream, and extracts a time stamp generated by a source clock from each packet. A difference d between the extracted time stamp and the local time is compared against a d_ref value to determine whether the packet was received early or late. On a prescribed schedule, the degree of late and early receipt of packets is compared against a tolerance level to determine whether a relative drift exists between the pacing of the source clock and the pacing of the local clock. The detection of drift between the two clocks provides support for service level guarantees in provisioning data streaming services in packet-switched environments.

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