News Summary:
Meinberg's "Five-minute facts about packet timing" series on March 11, 2026, discussed the potential end of leap seconds, referencing the "Leap Smearing hack" used to protect IT systems from these adjustments. Previously, on February 24, 2026, the company detailed the Precision Time Protocol (PTP), standardized as IEEE 1588, describing it as a network-based synchronization method that uses hardware timestamped messages to align clocks across distributed devices with nanosecond-level accuracy, while compensating for network delays. Earlier, on February 10, 2026, Meinberg issued a security advisory ([MBGSA]) identifying vulnerabilities in all LANTIME firmware versions before 7.10.008. This advisory affected devices across the LANTIME M series, LANTIME IMS series, SyncFire product family, and LANTIME CPU Expansions. This followed a February 5, 2026, entry in the "Five Minute Facts about Packet Timing" series that introduced the "Leap Second Smearing" concept, highlighting discussions within the ITU-R to achieve international agreement on ending leap seconds, partly due to the Earth's recent slight acceleration.
Subscribe for full access to Meinberg's products in full detail 
