Abstract: Telecommunications systems can be synchronized via the transmission link. In this process, the telecommunication systems receive the clock signal and an additional information item, which describes the quality of the clock signal, from the received data stream. In telecommunication systems which are connected to a number of differently standardized transmission networks, different algorithms for evaluating the differently formatted clock signal quality data are necessary in the main processor. The present telecommunication system simplifies the communication of clock signal qualities. The different interface cards have converters which convert the clock signal quality information between a transmission-network-specific format and an independent format. The main processor only contains a subunit for processing all clock signal qualities. The present method for synchronizing a telecommunication system includes a converting the transmission-network-specific data into messages of an independent format.

Abstract: A telecommunications system includes devices to provide output clock signals that are synchronous to at least one source clock signal. A main clock generator includes a selector to select one of the output clock signals. The main clock generator generates a main clock signal based on a selected one of the output clock signals. Each of the devices includes a quality detector (i) to detect a quality of the at least one source clock signal, and (ii) to interrupt providing an output clock signal in response to a decrease in quality of the at least one source clock signal. The main clock generator includes an interrupt detector to detect an interruption in an output clock signal provided by at least one of the devices. The selector selects a different output clock signal if the interrupt detector detects that the selected one of the output clock signals is interrupted.