GPS World

Tag: Hoptroff

  • Hoptroff to deliver resilient precision timing to financial markets through LSEG’s platform

    Hoptroff to deliver resilient precision timing to financial markets through LSEG’s platform

    Hoptroff, a precision timing specialist, has partnered with the London Stock Exchange (LSEG) through its Hosting & Connectivity Partner Platform, which enables financial markets customers to access third-party applications and services via LSEG’s global connectivity services.

    The move reflects a fundamental shift in how financial services views timing infrastructure. No longer just a technical requirement, time has become a strategic investment in cybersecurity and digital resilience.

    Timing precision has long been a regulatory necessity in financial markets. Rules such as MiFID II and FINRA CAT NMS define exactly how accurate trade timestamps must be. What’s changing is the expectation that timing infrastructure itself be resilient and independently verified.

    Emerging EU and US guidelines now urge firms to mitigate over-reliance on GNSS/GPS and to implement terrestrial, traceable time sources that are protected against jamming, spoofing and cyberattacks. Time is under threat, and for financial institutions, dependable time is now a core element of regulatory resilience and audit confidence.

    “Partnering with LSEG is significant,” said Tim Richards, CEO of Hoptroff. “As one of the world’s most influential financial institutions, their recognition of Hoptroff’s timing solutions demonstrates the strategic importance of resilient time that is easily accessible.”

    Hoptroff combines precision timing with the reliability and uptime the sector demands, then pairs it with software that makes compliance straightforward. “Everything is plug-and-play, so firms get instant access without heavy upfront infrastructure costs,” Richards said.

    Hoptroff addresses both established and emerging regulatory requirements for time synchronisation. The company holds ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certifications and exceeds the precision standards financial markets require, offering accuracy across a terrestrial network that connects directly to national timing authorities, including NIST, NPL and RISE. This allows firms to meet global financial services regulations, such as MiFID II, FINRA CAT, and the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), without sacrificing trading accuracy or uptime.

  • Xona secures first customers to modernize precision timekeeping

    Xona secures first customers to modernize precision timekeeping

    Xona has reached three new commercial agreements with precision timing innovators Hoptroff, Fibrolan and Timebeat, marking its official entry into the precision timekeeping and synchronization market. These partnerships seek to enable end users to leverage Xona’s Pulsar satellites to provide independent, secure, and resilient timing infrastructure amid mounting global complexity and risk.

    Satellite navigation provides far more than positioning — it’s the world’s most accurate source of globally synchronized time signals underpinning nearly every critical system, including:

    • Emergency response coordination
    • Real-time power grid balancing
    • Transportation network resilience
    • Fair and trustworthy global financial trading
    • 5G network synchronization
    • Data center efficiency and security

    As infrastructure becomes more connected and distributed, timing is the backbone of data governance— determining who holds critical data, when it was held and for how long. A single second lost or spoofed can erode trust across every facet of daily life.

    Broadcasting nanosecond-level accurate time from low-Earth orbit, Pulsar provides a new alternative to vulnerable GNSS-based systems. With built-in authentication, secure signals, and up to 100x received  power of legacy GNSS, Pulsar ensures reliable reception even in low-rise buildings and urban environments — all without requiring specialized hardware, according to the company.

    “This is an important milestone — proof that next-generation satellite technology is no longer just promising innovation, but solving real, urgent problems today.” said Jay Wakenshaw, COO of Xona. “Seeing market leaders like Hoptroff, Fibrolan, and TimeBeat adopt Pulsar validates that there’s a genuine need and significant demand for what we’re bringing to market.”

    Pulsar testing and demonstrations in real-world environments will continue through this year and into early next year, with active field deployments planned from late 2026.

    “Our customers in critical national infrastructure rely on precision timing to keep their operations secure, compliant, and efficient.” said Tim Richards, CEO of Hoptroff. “The low-Earth orbit Ssatellite system provided by Xona will add additional redundancy to our global timing network, and complements our existing terrestrial timing infrastructure which is essential for next gen applications particularly in these uncertain times.”

    “We’re always seeking innovative alternatives to GNSS — because the future of timing depends on it.” said Shamir Stein, CEO of Fibrolan. “Pulsar is exactly the kind of breakthrough our industry needs: a powerful, dependable solution that will allow us to continue delivering simple, robust, and hassle-free timing to our partners and customers.”

  • Hoptroff livestreams GNSS vulnerabilities roundtable

    Hoptroff livestreams GNSS vulnerabilities roundtable

    Hoptroff will host its thought leadership industry roundtable, “GNSS, the time is up,” on March 21. The virtual roundtable will explore the impact of escalating GNSS vulnerabilities to business continuity and how organizations can best protect business-critical operations.

    “Businesses and financial institutions need to accept and start planning how they are going to mitigate the risks associated with GNSS,” said Tim Richards, CEO at Hoptroff. “This livestream roundtable will allow business and financial institutional decision-makers to better understand the impact and disruption GNSS vulnerabilities can have on their bottom line, and why they need to act now.”

    The roundtable is an opportunity for those in the financial and business sector to learn more about the status of GPS, the growing potential risks from increased jamming, spoofing and cyberattacks, what disruption looks like, and the new technologies available to provide complementary positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies to help mitigate risk.

    “GNSS vulnerabilities create serious consequences for critical infrastructure,” said Richard Hoptroff, founder and chief time officer at Hoptroff. “To effectively mitigate these threats, complementary PNT solutions need to be deployed.”

    The event will be moderated by Robert Hampshire, deputy assistant secretary for Research and Technology, U.S. Department of Transportation.

    Speakers at the roundtable event include:

    • Robert Hampshire – Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, U.S. Department of Transportation
    • Diana Furchtgott-Roth – Heritage Foundation and George Washington University
    • Judah Levine – Fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
    • Karen Van Dyke – Director for PNT, U.S. Department of Transportation
    • Steve Suarez – Global Head of Innovation, Financial Services
    • Kathryn Condello – Senior Director, National Security/ Emergency Preparedness, Lumen Technologies
    • Richard Hoptroff – Founder and Chief Time Officer, Hoptroff

    Areas of discussion at the roundtable include:

    • The rising GNSS vulnerabilities and the potential consequences of GNSS disruption such as service outages, errors, or inaccuracies.
    • Example use cases where GNSS vulnerabilities can have a significant impact on your business continuity.
    • How to enable new resilient complementary technologies for your disaster recovery plans.
    • How to start utilizing these technologies today in your real-life applications such as precision timing for global financial services.
    • Practical advice for businesses on reducing GNSS risk in financial transactions, fraud detection, compliance and data integrity.

    Those interested in attending the livestream roundtable can sign up on the Hoptroff website.

  • 5G promises deeper connections

    5G promises deeper connections

    Orolia developed the Skydel GSG-8, a PNT test solution in its GSG family of simulators, to deliver GNSS signal testing and sensor simulation performance in an easy to use, upgradable and scalable platform. (Photo: Orolia)
    Orolia developed the Skydel GSG-8, a PNT test solution in its GSG family of simulators, to deliver GNSS signal testing and sensor simulation performance in an easy to use, upgradable and scalable platform. (Photo: Orolia)

    We discussed complementary PNT with Erik Oehler, marketing director at Orolia.

    What are some of the most promising approaches to complementary PNT and how does simulation technology help?

    5G is the most promising for the future. I believe the benefits in infrastructure, speed, precision, reliability, and the industry incentives 5G offer are superior to GNSS. Alternative signals of opportunity and new commercial satellite-based providers are always valuable as extra layers of resilience. However, PNT from 5G is not quite ready yet. There will be a transition period during which systems use GNSS and these signals of opportunity simultaneously, so simulation enables receivers of any complementary signal to be tested in the same environments and with the same potential threats faced by primary constellation signals.

    How does Orolia fit in that mix?

    Orolia has the most atomic clocks in orbit, including those aboard the Galileo constellation. We integrate anti-jam antennas and build Interference Detection and Mitigation (IDM) into our products. We partner with companies that offer alternative signals, such as STL from Satelles. Our SecureSync NTP and PTP time servers live in the world’s biggest data centers and support encrypted signals, such as M and Y code for our militaries. We innovate with industry leaders such as Meta on building a better PCIe Time Card. We offer edge time servers with the ability to automatically add Hoptroff’s Traceable Time as a Service. If 5G PNT becomes a standard, we are already providing industry leaders such as Anritsu with solutions for acceptance testing on a major carrier’s backbone. With our pending acquisition by Safran and access to a world-leading portfolio of INS components, we are one of the most qualified companies in the world to solve nearly any PNT challenge.

    What kinds of complementary PNT are most useful in addressing specifically the challenges posed by jamming and spoofing, and how does simulation help?

    In two technical notes published by NIST, they recognize STL as one of four recommended solutions for PNT resilience and the only one being both independent of GNSS and capable of sub-microsecond accuracy. Being closer to Earth, it is a stronger signal, making it 1,000 times less susceptible to jamming. Additionally, because it is encrypted it is inherently immune to spoofing. The aforementioned Hoptroff TTaS is time delivered over VPN, removing the outside environment component completely. For positioning and navigation, the integration of an IMU provides a contiguous PNT solution even during periods of GNSS denial, analogous to how an atomic clock provides precise time holdover during these denial periods. Combined with anti-jam antenna technology and IDM software, a robust PNT solution is always available.

    Simulation helps by (1) identifying the vulnerabilities your PNT system might have (or could have in the future to evolving threats) and (2) verifying the total integrated resilient system. Our GSG-8 Advanced GNSS Simulator supports hundreds of GNSS full spectrum signals, custom signals, and hardware-in-the-loop testing of integrated IMUs at up to 1000 Hz iteration rate. Our Skydel Wavefront and Anechoic simulators can verify the most complex GNSS anti-jam antenna systems.

  • Orolia and Hoptroff partner on traceable timing to protect networks

    Orolia and Hoptroff partner on traceable timing to protect networks

    Hoptroff’s Traceable Time as a Service to become an option for Orolia’s product portfolio; webinar scheduled for Dec. 15

    Orolia and timing solutions provider Hoptroff are partnering to deliver a service combining Orolia’s resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions with Hoptroff’s timing synchronization software.

    The collaboration will offer Hoptroff’s Traceable Time as a Service (TTaaS) as an add-on to Orolia’s suite of products, providing precise and verifiable time to customers in enterprise, financial, telecom, utilities, public safety, and other markets where traceable time is critical.

    Webinar scheduled

    Orolia and Hoptroff will host a joint webinar to discuss the partnership and new resiliency options for customers on Dec. 15 at 12 p.m. EST. Register here.

    Hoptroff’s TTaaS offers an additional level of security and precision to meet stringent regulatory and resilient infrastructure requirements by delivering accurate time over the network using a VPN connection over broadband or fiber networks.

    The bundled solution will simplify the challenge of getting accurate, traceable time in applications where GNSS access is not available or dependable. It can also serve as an accurate, reliable backup to GNSS to provide a high level of resiliency to timing systems being used in critical infrastructure.

    “As industries evolve and computer applications become more complex and widely distributed, it is essential that devices in a distributed process share the same accurate timescale to reconstruct digital events after the fact,” said Tim Richards, COO at Hoptroff. “Network-based traceable timing, such as TTaaS, provides resilient backup to a GNSS installation in the case of signal disruption, monitors the quality of performance of time servers, and keeps a record of this timing quality at a location of the customer’s choice. Our partnership with Orolia means businesses will now be able to back up and monitor physical time servers and virtual servers in the cloud, so that they can be sure they share the same accurate timescale, and they have the records to prove it.”

    “The partnership with Hoptroff aligns with Orolia’s resilient PNT strategy by providing a wireline solution to augment its space-based PNT solutions. This allows us to further simplify the challenge customers face when building a highly resilient timing solution,” said Jeremy Onyan, Orolia’s director of time sensitive networks. “By combining Orolia’s anti-jamming and anti-spoofing solutions, high-performance GNSS-based timing products, alternative signals like STL, a local high-quality oscillator, and now a wireline-based TTaaS we have one of the most robust portfolios of resilient PNT solutions in the market. Additionally, with the recent acquisition of Seven Solutions, we are well positioned to extend our capabilities into high-accuracy time distribution.”

    Seven Solutions is a global innovator in White Rabbit sub-nanosecond time transfer and synchronization technology. “With the capability to distribute time with little to no accuracy loss, Orolia’s customers using Hoptroff’s TTaaS or other time references such as GNSS can extend that time to other parts of their networks and create a high level of resiliency against potential outages,” Onyan added.

    Image: Panuwat Sikham/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
    Image: Panuwat Sikham/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images