  Custom experiment setups in physics often require control electronics to
execute actions and measurements on a small time scale. When further
constraints limit the experiment's environment, for example when the experiment
is inside a sounding rocket, conventional network systems will not suffice
those constraints because of weight, heat or budget limitations. This paper
proposes a network architecture with a time resolution of less than 1 ns over a
pair of plastic fibers while using low-cost commercial hardware. The plastic
fibers in comparison to copper fibers have a low weight and additionally can
isolate parts of the setup galvanically. Data rates of 40 Mbit/s enable the
network to transfer large amounts of measurements and configuration data over
the network. Proof-of-concept implementations of network endpoints and switches
on small FPGAs are analyzed in terms of synchronicity, data rate and resource
usage. Using commercial parts the resolution of 1 ns is reached with a standard
deviation of less than 100 ps. Compared to a copper wire implementation the
weight is reduced by about one order of magnitude. With its low weight at a low
cost, the network is useful in space or laboratory setups which require high
time resolution.
