SubSecTime

SubSecTime is a term used to describe time values that include sub-second precision, typically used in digital systems to timestamp events with fractions of a second. In practice, SubSecTime may be represented as a numeric value of seconds with a decimal fraction since a defined epoch, or as a composite structure consisting of an integer seconds field and a separate sub-second component such as nanoseconds or microseconds. Formats such as ISO 8601 and RFC 3339 can carry sub-second fractions, enabling human-readable timestamps with precision down to milliseconds or finer.

Applications include high-resolution logging, event sequencing in distributed architectures, multimedia synchronization, scientific data acquisition, and high-frequency trading. Achieving reliable SubSecTime requires careful clock synchronization across devices, typically using protocols like NTP (Network Time Protocol) or PTP (Precision Time Protocol), and awareness of leap seconds and time zone handling.

Implementation considerations include choosing between floating-point representations versus fixed-width integers to avoid rounding errors, and ensuring consistent interpretation across systems with different endianness or time bases. Performance and storage overhead may vary with the chosen precision.

See also: Time stamp, Time measurement, ISO 8601, RFC 3339, NTP, PTP.