CEMTM "The White Rabbit Collaboration"

by Javier Serrano (CERN)

Thursday 3 Apr 2025, 14:00 → 15:15 Europe/Zurich

774/R-013 (CERN)

White Rabbit (WR) is an open-source synchronisation technology born at CERN and developed with other institutes and companies. It is commercially available from several vendors, and its adoption in industry and academia increased significantly after it was standardised as part of the Precise Time Protocol (IEEE 1588). As a result, the number of requests for support grew, and the core WR team found it difficult to justify the time needed to help new users and developers. This triggered the creation of the WR Collaboration (WRC). Members of the WRC pay a yearly fee which is mainly used to staff the so-called WRC Bureau, whose main tasks include maintaining the fundamental building blocks of WR (the WR Switch and the WR PTP Core) and providing guaranteed support to members. The WRC is also an experiment in public-private partnerships and knowledge transfer, which can become a template for other projects and technologies. After a quick historical and technological introduction, the talk will cover the rationale for past strategic decisions in WR and for the main driving ideas in the WRC. The evolution of the WRC during its first year of existence will be analysed, and the presentation will finish with plans for the short and medium-term future.