Building a SMPTE 2110 home lab for broadcast/media network engineering job interviews. Hands-on PTP, AES67, NMOS, uncompressed video.

Current State (2026-04-16, end of Phase 1 software-timestamping attempt)

Hardware all acquired and installed. CRS326 online with RouterOS 7.22.1, hostname smpte2110-ptp, mgmt 192.168.1.3/24. DAC uplink to UDM Pro port 11 (deviation from plan).

STALE — port assignments and PTP/MDB port membership changed in a 2026-04-17 session and are not yet re-captured. Do not rely on the specific ether port numbers previously listed here. Refresh with /interface bridge port print, /system ptp port print, /interface bridge mdb print on the switch.

Switch-side config is complete and correct (structure, not port specifics):

• VLAN 1 untagged trunk on sfp-sfpplus1 (matches UDM Pro port 11 native config — DHCP works)
• IGMP snooping + multicast-querier on bridge1 (subject to 2026-04-17 changes — confirm)
• PTP boundary clock instance ptp1, SMPTE profile, domain auto (127)
• Static MDB for 224.0.1.129 on bridge1 + PTP ports
• Config snapshot exported to src/smpte-2110-lab/configs/switch/crs326-ptp-config.rsc (67 lines, dated 2026-04-16 — pre-2026-04-17 reconfig)
• SSH via pubkey at ssh admin@192.168.1.3 (note 2026-04-17: mpent@SERVER-PC key currently rejected — re-authorize or re-key to restore access)

Phase 1 PTP sync not demonstrated — blocked by WSL2 mirror-mode multicast limitation on the laptop (Windows NIC drops multicast before Linux WSL receives it; IGMP joins don’t propagate). GM transmit confirmed working via tcpdump on SERVER-PC WSL eth2. CRS326 RX confirmed via torch. Only the final delivery to laptop WSL eth0 fails.

Phase 2 (native Linux dual-boot on laptop) is the unblock. This is also a prerequisite for hardware timestamping (sub-microsecond accuracy).

Key Decisions

• MikroTik CRS326-24G-2S+RM chosen over CRS317 (two-switch split-plane architecture, fanless, better interview story)
• DAC uplink to UDM Pro port 11 SFP+ 2 (not USW-16-PoE as plan originally specified)
• Sound Blaster removed from Stream-PC, audio rerouted through motherboard
• Arista 7010T rejected — does NOT support PTP
• WSL2 acceptable for Phase 1 software timestamping; native Linux dual-boot deferred for hardware timestamping in Phase 2+
• Windows OpenSSH upgraded 9.5p1 → 9.8p2 on laptop for stability; authorized_keys at absolute path to bypass Windows profile quirks

Dependencies

• Stream-PC + Game-PC migration window (deferred, production running)
• Linux dual-boot for hardware timestamping (Phase 2, planned)