Patent ID: 6941482

Claim:
In a system that includes a plurality of boxes, wherein each box includes a plurality of blades and each blade has one or more ports, wherein a domain includes a plurality of ports that are selected from the plurality of boxes, a method for synchronizing a time stamp counter of each port in the domain, the method comprising: generating a clock signal at a master box; adjusting the clock signal to account for a delay; sending the adjusted clock signal to a slave box such that the delay in the clock signal is reduced on the slave box and the clock signal on the slave box is substantially synchronized with the clock signal on the master box; multiplying the clock signal on the master box and the adjusted clock signal at the slave box; and driving time stamp counters for each port in each domain on the master box with the multiplied clock signal and for each port in each domain on the slave box with the adjusted and multiplied clock signal such that the time stamp counters for each port in each domain are substantially synchronized.