A physical layer (PHY) processor of a network device receives: a timing packet that includes initial timing information, and one or more indicators of one or more parameters to be used by the PHY processor for embedding timing information into the timing packet, the one or more indicators including at least i) an indicator indicating that the timing packet is a type of packet into which timing information is to be embedded by the PHY device, ii) an indicator of a location of a field in the timing packet at which the timing information is to be embedded into the timing packet by the PHY device, and iii) an indicator of whether timing information in the timing packet needs to be updated by the PHY device. The PHY processor updates, based on the one or more indicators, the initial timing information in the timing packet.