The open-source collaboration features Orolia Atomic Reference Time Cards powered by its Spectratime micro-atomic clock
Orolia is providing Atomic Reference Time (ART) Cards to support Meta’s implementation of high-precision timing protocols within its distributed timing infrastructure. The architecture of Orolia ART Cards is powered by the company’s Spectratime mRO-50 mini rubidium atomic-clock technology.
The Spectratime mRO-50. (Photo: Orolia)
“We are honored to have this opportunity to collaborate with Meta’s incredibly talented team of engineers to develop a unique open-source solution using our mRO-50 technology,” said Jean-Yves Courtois, Orolia CEO. “We look forward to a continuing partnership with Meta and other global network leaders working to advance solutions to ensure ongoing timing accuracy and resilience.”
Orolia developed the ART Card solution in collaboration with the Meta engineering team to fulfill a new specification that Meta published for the Time Appliances Project Initiative of the Open Compute Project. This new collaborative community is focused on designing from scratch new hardware and software to efficiently support the critical timing accuracy and resilience demands on computer network infrastructure. This project is fully open-sourced and available on Orolia’s GitHub.
In 2020, Meta began converting its data-center servers to a new time-distribution service based on network time protocol (NTP) and precision time protocol (PTP). The new service, built in-house and later open-sourced, was more scalable and improved the accuracy of timekeeping within the Meta infrastructure from 10 milliseconds to 100 microseconds. Orolia ART Cards will further increase the accuracy, resiliency and adoption of Meta’s new timing platform.
Developed with long-term support in mind, Orolia’s ART Cards deliver management, disciplining and monitoring functions that can be integrated into any computer with a PCIe port and bring accurate and resilient timing for the most demanding applications such as NTP/PTP time reference, time stamping and latency calculation.
New Maxiva GNSS-PTP solution for broadcast and telecom facilities seamlessly connects to second-generation GNSS and other timing sources
GatesAir, specialist in television and radio technology, will soon ship a new timing and signal reference solution for broadcast and telecom facilities, the Maxiva GNSS-PTP.
GatesAir is demonstrating the Maxiva GNSS-PTP at the National Association of Broadcasters 2022 NAB Show, taking place April 23-26 in Las Vegas.
The new Maxiva GNSS-PTP is a standalone one-rack-unit solution with a sophisticated switching algorithm that assures high-precision 10 MHz and 1 PPS reference signals to mission-critical components in the signal chain, including transmitters, networking and studio equipment.
Each GNSS-PTP device feeds up to twelve 10 MHz and 1 PPS references in the technology infrastructure, removing the need to integrate a standalone timing source in each component. This substantially reduces equipment costs and installation timelines while providing a single, yet highly redundant, point of failure for engineers.
Precise timing and frequency generation is assured because of the product’s high level of redundancy, according to GatesAir. The product design includes redundant AC power supplies with built-in battery backup for always-on protection, and diverse timing sources including redundant GNSS receivers.
The GNSS receivers include OCXO temperature control to prevent frequency changes, and support GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS.
Timing sources also include a hardware-based precision time protocol (PTP) module and an external 10 MHz and 1 PPS reference. Built-in switching control logic ensures reliability and flexibility for selecting the highest priority source as a reference at all times.
Support for PTP v2 adds further reliability and flexibility for customers. Available as a modular option, users can prioritize PTP as a facility’s primary source, or configure PTP as a backup to one of the GNSS receivers. The PTP module can function as a master or slave and, as with the unit’s GNSS receivers, provide reliable timing and frequency reference to 12 external devices.
“GatesAir has strong experience in the area of timing and synchronization for video, audio and telecom networks, and the Maxiva GNSS-PTP represents a major step forward in timing reliability, network redundancy and cost reduction,” said Keyur Parikh, Vice President of Engineering, GatesAir. “Our Intraplex SynchroCast solutions have long provided timing and frequency reference generation to synchronize SFN networks, and the GNSS-PTP product builds upon that capability to provide precision timing to broadcast and telecom networks. Our customers can rest assured that they have a proven solution that will work in any broadcast studio, RF plant and telco facility worldwide with the rock-solid reliability they expect from GatesAir.”
GatesAir has further simplified the user experience with an integrated web interface that allows users to easily and flexibly select frequency bands for each GNSS constellation and configure timing source selection in automatic and manual modes. The user interface also offers useful visual aids, including detailed tracking maps and tables, satellite status and signal quality.
GNSS assurance software Ensemble Sync Director now detects jamming and spoofing cyberattacks on third-party GNSS receivers
ADVA has extended its Ensemble Sync Director GNSS assurance software to integrate any third-party vendor’s GNSS receiver observables at scale.
A key pillar of ADVA’s aPNT+ technology, Ensemble Sync Director is now vendor-agnostic, providing resilient and assured positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) for more customers than before.
Ensemble Sync Director can now transparently show and analyze GNSS observables from third-party receivers in large deployments.
Synchronization based on satellite signals is vulnerable to failure, interference and cyberthreats, meaning network operators need to protect their critical timing with continuous monitoring and assurance. With the Adva software, network operators can remotely detect issues with GNSS receivers from any vendor, helping to maintain high-quality timing performance, avoid disruptions and reduce operating costs.
“By extending our GNSS assurance application capabilities beyond our own timing equipment, we’re empowering many more customers to protect their mission-critical synchronization in new or deployed infrastructure,” said Gil Biran, GM of Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “Our Ensemble Sync Director, with comprehensive GNSS assurance for both resilient and assured PNT, provides a simple, scalable and highly cost-efficient way to harness our unique experience and expertise in managing a huge number of GNSS-dependent network elements.”
ADVA’s Oscilloquartz GNSS assurance solution for integrating third-party receiver data is an extension of its Sync Director application, part of the Ensemble Controller network management platform. It offers centralized in-service monitoring and analysis of GNSS status and reliability as well as artificial-intelligence and machine-learning-based prediction and prevention of obstruction, jamming and spoofing.
Using topology and timing chain mapping, Ensemble Sync Director displays the entire timing network infrastructure in a user-intuitive graphical format.
ADVA’s GNSS assurance capabilities are aligned with the goals of the DHS Resilient PNT Conformance Framework and future IEEE P1952 Resilient PNT Standard to protect critical infrastructure.
Available from ADVA Professional Services, the new solution is suitable for network operators in telecoms, power utilities, financial trading, data centers and more, who need to ensure robust, reliable and resilient GNSS timing. It also offers value to system-integrator vendors looking to add vital GNSS protection capabilities to their synchronization portfolios.
Trimble announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Time and Frequency, LOADRITE, Spectra Precision Tools and SECO accessories businesses to Precisional LLC, an affiliate of The Jordan Company (TJC).
The divestiture is in line with Trimble’s strategy to focus on areas core to its long-term growth and strategic product roadmap. The global transaction is subject to a number of customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We are continually evaluating our product portfolio as we work on the execution of Trimble’s Connect and Scale 2025 strategy,” said Rob Painter, president and CEO of Trimble. “Trimble is focusing its efforts on the company’s connected industry platforms and digital transformation capabilities, making Precisional and TJC an ideal fit for the growth of the businesses.”
TJC, a private equity firm, is completing the acquisition in partnership with industry executive Drew Ladau to form Precisional LLC, a global platform focused on precision measurement and data solutions driving efficiencies in demanding infrastructure end markets.
“The Trimble businesses, which will join Precisional, have a long heritage of innovation, and each is a leader in the markets it serves,” said Drew Ladau, CEO of Precisional. “I’m excited to build upon this strong foundation alongside the dedicated employees that have served their customers so well over the years. In addition, we plan to accelerate the pace of innovation and growth with the focus of resources and investment on these core businesses supported by TJC.”
“The acquisition of four industry-leading businesses from Trimble by Precisional forms the foundation of a new platform focused on precise measurement and analytical insights to improve productivity across a broad range of applications that rely upon accuracy and reliability,” said Erik Fagan, partner at TJC. “By supporting existing management to make investments in Precisional’s operations and product development to integrate precision measurement with data solutions and enhanced connectivity, we intend to accelerate growth opportunities while also pursuing synergistic acquisitions.”
The Time and Frequency products use the accuracy of GNSS clocks to provide precise time, synchronization and frequency reference signals for many industries and applications. Communication systems, data centers, financial networks, utilities, factory automation, security and other infrastructure rely on precise timing for synchronization and operational efficiency.
The Spectra Precision Tools business designs and manufactures high-quality leveling, positioning and alignment instruments used for general, exterior and underground construction. The instruments incorporate laser and optical technology for general contractors and specialty contractors serving large and small commercial jobsites as well as residential builders and remodelers.
The LOADRITE business offers accurate scales for loaders, excavators, conveyor belts, tractors, refuse trucks and forklifts that connect with payload-reporting and monitoring systems for the waste, quarry and aggregates industry. The products improve user efficiency by weighing products while they are on a vehicle or belt, eliminating the need for a separate trip to a fixed-scale location.
The SECO business designs and manufactures a wide variety of accessory products used in conjunction with surveying and construction instruments. The portfolio of accessory products includes tripods, telescopic poles, prisms, carrying cases, GPS antenna poles, safety vests and leveling rods.
LOADRITE, Spectra Precision Tools and the SECO businesses have been reported as part of Trimble’s Buildings and Infrastructure segment. The Time and Frequency business has been reported as part of Trimble’s Geospatial segment.
Orrick acted as legal advisor and Lincoln International acted as financial advisor to Trimble. Mayer Brown acted as legal advisor and BMO Capital Markets acted as financial advisor to TJC.
More than 100 experiments will be conducted with the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), set to launch next year, according to a U.S. Air Force official and reported by FedScoop.
“We’re really excited to push the state of the art with more than 100 experiments on this little [NTS-3] spacecraft and we’re looking at ways that we can solve warfighters’ problems in the contested environment,” Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, commander of AFRL, told reporters April 6 at the 37th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.
Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle
Set to launch in 2023, NTS-3 is designed to push the boundary of today’s position, navigation and timing (PNT) technology to pave the way for a more flexible, robust, and resilient architecture for satellite navigation technology.
NTS-3 is a product of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and industry, designed to test advanced techniques and technologies to detect and mitigate interference to PNT capabilities and increase system resiliency for military, civil, and commercial users.
Unlike the GPS medium-Earth-orbit satellites, NTS-3 will operate for one year in geosynchronous Earth orbit. Ultimately, NTS-3 will identify key aspects for new GPS receivers that incorporate multiple signals and readily adapt to warfighter needs.
The NTS-3 experiments will also involve ground equipment and terminals such as command and control stations and software-defined radios. Specific improvements to the ground segment will enable experimentation with automated “lights-out” operations, control station failover, and near-real time environment sensing and generation of error correction and tailored waveforms. Onboard systems will monitor clock accuracy and orbit parameters to mitigate errors and notify the user.
NTS-3 will test a new digital signal generator that can be reprogrammed on-orbit, enabling it to broadcast new signals, improve performance by avoiding and defeating interference, and adding signatures to counter spoofing.
AFRL also will explore antenna configurations to provide Earth coverage and steerable regional beams in multiple frequencies and signal codes. The NTS-3 satellite will be equipped with 110 antennas to help counter attempted GPS jamming.
Ultimately, NTS-3 is expected to provide users with enhanced signal stability, availability, integrity and accuracy.
L3Harris plans to deliver NTS-3 later this year. The company is assembling the satellite at its Palm Bay facility near Cape Canaveral, Florida. The plant was expanded in 2021 to accommodate the NTS-3 program.
On March 24, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released information about a program designed to provide resilient timing to the electrical grid by fiber.
More than just an academic center for research, CAST is building a network of atomic master clocks and methods of time delivery by fiber that will ensure power grids always have failsafe and resilient time.
Timing is essential to a wide variety of equipment and network functions essential to electrical grids. Most of these use time signals that come directly from, or can be traced back to, signals from GPS.
Electrical-grid timing dependent equipment and networks
Transmission-line fault detection
Frequency measurement
Synchrophasors/phasor measurement units
Internet-based market transactions
Substation control/resynchronization
Disturbance monitoring event recorders
Protective relays
Bulk metering
SCADA networks
Synchrophasor networks
An industry expert once observed, “Electrical grids won’t fail without accurate time signals, but they are impossible to manage. And who wants an unmanageable grid?”
According to David Wells, program leader for CAST at DOE headquarters, “It has been no secret there are vulnerabilities within the timing and synchronizations platforms used by the energy sector.” Wells said that for grid timing “a secure, verifiable, and reliable solution is paramount.”
He sees CAST as a necessary part of tech evolution for electrical grids and service. “The sector has been going through a transition from analog to digital and then from digital to internet protocol (IP). Technologies have been bolted on, but with each bolt-on added, access vulnerabilities are added as well. Embedded stratum timing systems based through digital carriers allowed our networks to be closed-loop (zero-trust) for 50 years. During the age of IP conversion, the ability to provide timing via stratum was lost, so the sector moved to GPS and NTP, which provided precision at the locations, but lack security, validation and true wide-area synchronization.”
CAST’s goal is to establish “true closed-loop (zero-trust) with secure bi-direction timing validation and synchronization over IP networks,” with multiple clocking sources, according to Wells. The system, he said, will be able to reach all power substations and remote locations.
While Wells, his office and ORNL are the primary players, a whole cast of other organizations contributes to the effort. These include DOE’s Office of Electricity; its Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response; Savannah River National Laboratory; Sandia National Laboratory; and industry partners.
CAST will not be creating new infrastructure, but rather leveraging fiber already in place. “This is not a dedicated fiber network for timing,” said Wells. “CAST uses existing fiber in the form of dark fiber (underutilized fiber), commercial fiber and optical ground wire, and works with wireless technologies to extend secure timing and synchronization to users.”
While CAST is narrowly focused on electrical grids and fiber, some see a potential for it to be the basis of a wider national security effort.
Marc Weiss is a timing expert and consultant who served for more than 40 years as a theoretical physicist for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. “CAST could be part of the foundation of an architecture that benefits all sectors and citizens, not just power grids,” he said. “The Department of Transportation has identified the need for Americans to have access to timing signals from space, from terrestrial wireless transmitters, and via fiber to have the kind of resilience they need. So, CAST is certainly a big step in the right direction.”
DOE’s DarkNet initiative is a joint initiative by the Office of Electricity and the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). Additional information on DarkNet and CAST can be found at https://darknet.ornl.gov
Cooperative agreement expands precision timing distribution options for critical infrastructure and verifies STL’s agreement with UTC via UTC(NIST)
This March 30, 2022, chart of Satelles and NIST testing verifies that STL timing agrees with UTC. (Chart: Satelles)
Satelles Inc., provider of highly secure satellite-based time and location services, has entered a cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology that directly connects STL’s operational infrastructure to the source of UTC(NIST), the national standard for time and frequency in the United States produced in coordination with the U.S. Naval Observatory.
The agreement calls for Satelles to provide its STL service to NIST. Reciprocally, the agreement includes the introduction of a connection between an STL Ground Monitoring Station (GMS) provided by Satelles to the NIST collection of extremely accurate atomic clocks that maintains the official time scale for UTC(NIST).
The Cooperative Agreement was described in NIST Technical Note 2187, “A Resilient Architecture for the Realization and Distribution of Coordinated Universal Time to Critical Infrastructure Systems in the United States,” published in November 2021.
In February 2021, Satelles delivered and configured an STL GMS at NIST’s Time and Frequency Division in Boulder, Colorado. This facility is home to the ensemble of high-precision cesium beam and hydrogen maser atomic clocks that maintains UTC(NIST).
After conducting a series of successful preliminary tests in the spring of 2021, NIST then directly connected the STL GMS to its primary clock ensemble in June 2021. Comparing timing provided by STL to UTC(NIST), the testing confirmed STL’s long-term stability of better than 25 nanoseconds with short-term time deviation of 50 nanoseconds.
STL from Satelles is a resilient, alternative PNT service from low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites that enterprise customers rely on as a primary timing source. Telecom operators, for example, use STL for 5G wireless network deployments where GPS is unavailable indoors or when other timing solutions cannot provide the required level of accuracy.
STL’s agreement with UTC also is important for critical infrastructure and other applications that require an essential contingency capability to protect the operations of PNT-dependent systems and ensure survivability and resilience.
“Satelles has a network of GMS nodes positioned around the world to receive STL signals and calculate the position and timing of the satellites for purposes of producing timing corrections, and
now we are fortunate to have a GMS connected inside NIST’s main time lab,” said Gregory Gutt, president and CTO of Satelles. “It’s an honor to be given direct access to UTC(NIST), especially in an arrangement that delivers benefit to both our customers and NIST.”
Visit satelles.com/nist for more information about NIST reports that detail the performance of STL and collaborations between Satelles and NIST.
Net Insight’s sync solution becomes fully PTP-standard compliant with synchronization module for 5G and other mission-critical networks
Net Insight has selected Meinberg’s precision time protocol (PTP) software stack — Precision TimeNet — to implement full PTP functionality in all of its platforms.
The Precision TimeNet solution offers a GNSS-independent delivery of high-accuracy timing across any IP vendor network, which can significantly reduce the cost and rollout times of 5G and other mission-critical networks.
In 2021, Meinberg also delivered a synchronization module to Net Insight’s Nimbra MSR 300 series, providing full PTP IEEE 1588v2 interoperability and GNSS integration for 5G networks. The new module is part of the Nimbra Time Node, an important component of the Precision TimeNet solution.
Net Insight licensed the PTP stack from Oregano Systems, owned by Meinberg, to deliver network synchronization for both media and 5G networks. Meinberg leverages Net Insight’s network synchronization capabilities to serve customers across the telecom, fintech, government, and power telecom industries. The expansion into a strategic technology partnership means that both companies will utilize their expertise in time synchronization to deploy solutions that remove the challenges of reliable precision timing over any IP network.
“The shift to IP is accelerating, making precision timing key to the successful deployment of new applications,” said Heiko Gerstung, managing director of Meinberg. “Net Insight’s Precision TimeNet offers a unique solution on the market that we see a strong and growing need for, across multiple industries. We’re excited to be working with Net Insight, a leader in mission-critical IP transport, to drive innovation and enable our customers to benefit from GNSS-independent time synchronization.”
“Net Insight has been developing time transfer for nearly two decades, delivering industry-leading time accuracy and resilience over IP networks,” said Per Lindgren, CTO and co-founder at Net Insight. “When expanding our synchronization business into new markets, integrating with the IEEE 1588 PTP standard was key to enhancing our interoperability. Teaming up with Meinberg, a leader in time and frequency synchronization, was the obvious choice.. We’re excited that our joint expertise in IP networking and time synchronization will enable us to reinvent precision timing for our customers.”
ADVA has released new software that extends its Oscilloquartz timing assurance technology to synchronization networks using Network Time Protocol (NTP).
ADVA’s Ensemble Sync Director management system provides assurance control, helping mission-critical services across many industries that depend on reliable and accurate NTP timing.
The new NTP capabilities are extended from ADVA’s robust Oscilloquartz Precision Time Protocol (PTP) product range and supported by Syncjack GNSS monitoring. They also leverage multiple form factors with redundant synchronization devices, multiple holdover options and versatile multi-technology gateways between GNSS, PTP and NTP, ensuring robust, scalable and highly resilient NTP timing architectures.
“Despite the availability of PTP, NTP remains the most widely used time synchronization protocol,” said Gil Biran, GM of Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “It’s applied in many legacy networks as well as new IoT (internet of things) applications. What’s more, the sophistication of NTP timing is increasing, while the NTP protocol itself remains unchanged. Now we’re enabling our customer to deploy robust, reliable and secure NTP implementations built on our unique expertise and experience in delivering assured synchronization.”
ADVA uses a combination of NTP architecture and highly accurate GNSS timing backed up with PTP timing domains.
Because ADVA’s products now support assured NTP technology, they offer customers virtually unlimited scale, Biran said. “With hardware-implemented NTP functionality, even the smallest SFP (small-form factor pluggable) NTP server can support up to 500,000 transactions per second.”
To ensure NTP delivery is able to withstand a broad range of risk scenarios, ADVA’s resilient synchronization solution is engineered for both device and network redundancy. It features multiple backup options such as PTP- and GNSS-delivered time, as well as a variety of oscillator solutions that allow different levels of holdover.
Comprehensive monitoring by ADVA’s Ensemble Sync Director management system helps guarantee the levels of performance required for time-critical network applications. Designed from the bottom up to support continuous assessment and assured timing precision, it automatically responds to any issues before applications can be disturbed by timing inaccuracies.
ADVA’s solutions also offer centralized GNSS monitoring and assurance, protecting timing networks from vulnerabilities, including jamming and spoofing attacks.
Customers can build NTP-based networks today and switch to PTP with one click, commented Nir Laufer, vice president of product line management at Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “Our customers no longer need to hope for the best from their NTP servers,” Laufer said. “With real-time GNSS monitoring and comprehensive probing and analysis of timing quality, they can rest assured that their synchronization services have the highest levels of accuracy, integrity, availability and scale.”
Next generation of atomic clocks to provide improved performance, stability and durability for U.S. Department of Defense
ColdQuanta has been awarded a 5-year subcontract to develop portable atomic clocks for the Office of Naval Research. ColdQuanta will serve as a subcontractor to Vescent Photonics, which secured the $15.6 million total award.
Under the Compact Rubidium Optical Clock (CROC) program, ColdQuanta will provide the physics package with development inputs from the Atomic Devices and Instrumentation Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The program began in November 2021 and will span three phases through 2026.
As part of the CROC program, ColdQuanta and its partners will design, build and deliver a new generation of high-performance atomic clocks ready for field deployment at a high technology readiness level (TRL). Specifically, the program will interrogate a two-photon optical clock transition in a warm vapor of rubidium atoms to achieve improved stability and performance. The clocks will also offer reduced size, weight and power consumption.
ColdQuanta is participating in the project alongside Vescent, which will provide optical frequency comb technology, and Octave Photonics and the Quantum Nanophotonics Group at NIST, which will supply crucial advances in non-linear nanophotonics. The outcome of the program will be 10 prototype field-deployable optical clocks at or above TRL 6 that exhibit long-term instability to better than three parts in 100 trillion and offer >50% reduction in power consumption.
The CROC program will be conducted in three phases:
Phase 1: All critical technology elements advanced to TRL 6 and demonstrated in a modular clock.
Phase 2: Engineering and verification efforts to integrate the individual components into prototype clocks.
Phase 3: Manufacturing 10 final prototype clocks for ONR evaluation in relevant platforms.
ViaLite’s RF-over-fiber systems can carry GPS/GNSS timing signals over long distances with very low signal degradation. However, the same cannot be said of GPS signals before they reach the GPS/GNSS antenna, as these weak radio waves are highly susceptible to jamming or spoofing.
Timing-critical infrastructures in areas such as defense and cyber security can now be protected from this kind of attack by installing one of ViaLite’s new GPS Protection Packages. The packages integrate either the GPS Resilient Kit or OtoSphere Protection Module products from Focus Telecom for jamming protection.
The GPS Resilient Kit has two GPS antennas, which enables the direction of the attack to be pinpointed. At its heart is the small OtoSphere Protection Module, which has a unique interference filtering algorithm that combines the patterns from the two omnidirectional antennas.
The module can analyze the direction from which the interference is coming and feed it into its algorithm, directing a null towards the unwanted signal to reject and reduce disruptions.
Using OtoSphere, GPS receivers are up to 50 times more resilient to jamming attacks on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems compared with having no protection. The GPS receiver is able to continue working normally throughout the attack.
“ViaLite customers typically need the highest grade of reliability and service, particularly for critical infrastructure timing applications,” said Richard Jacklin, ViaLite sales director. “With the increase in jamming threats, both land-based and maritime, these Focus Telecom anti-jamming products are a perfect complement to our range of GPS/GNSS signal distribution solutions.”
The Protection Packages can be integrated into new installations or retrofitted to existing ViaLite systems. The GPS Resilient Kit and OtoSphere are already IP-rated, so they can be simply added to outdoor installations. Alternatively, for a full package solution, the OtoSphere module can be integrated into the ViaLite ODE-MINI outdoor enclosure.
The packages are suitable for use in critical infrastructure sectors such as defense, satcoms, utilities, cellular communications, broadcast, data centers and transportation.
Other Focus Telecom products, introduced by ViaLite, include the GPSensor for monitoring GPS frequencies and reporting intentional and unintentional attacks, and the GPS RF Switch which protects PNT systems from vulnerabilities by isolating them from the RF signals coming from the antenna.
A PNT expert suggested that my piece titled “Opposite and Complementary: eLoran is part of the solution to GNSS vulnerability” in our November 2021 issue could be augmented with information not currently available on the proposed eLoran capability. This expert also questioned my statement that eLoran “does not have any common failure modes with GNSS” and pointed to potential common threats such as from cyberattacks, physical attacks, and space weather.
Matteo Luccio
I welcome such feedback on the contents of these pages — and agree that in this case some hard questions are warranted. So, in the interest of further exploring the use of eLoran, I pose some questions, hoping that its advocates will provide answers. I know that at least some of them will not shy away from this challenge.
Please note that I wish to keep the discussion on positioning, not the easier question of timing, because that was the primary focus of my article. I also wish to address long-term outages (weeks or months), which would have a greater impact on the United States.
Some of these questions have been addressed, at least in part, in various studies and proposals, most of them now more than a decade old. So, it would be helpful to update those answers and consolidate them in the pages of this magazine.
1. Accuracy specifics. While my November article stated that eLoran would have a two-dimensional accuracy of “better than 20 meters, and in many cases, better than 10 meters,” is that RMS, 95%, or some other statistic?
2. Performance standard. GPS provides a commitment to users in a published performance standard. What specific measures of positioning accuracy, integrity and continuity would you recommend the proposed eLoran system be committed to provide (using the architecture described in the answer to Question 6)?
3. Coverage. Would you recommend this eLoran positioning performance hold for the entire United States (including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and other territories), only for the “lower 48” states, or only parts of these 48 states?
4. Current users. By number of users, the predominant common current civil uses of GNSS for positioning are consumer devices (mostly cellphones). By contribution to the U.S. economy, the predominant uses are high-precision applications. For what fraction of these uses would eLoran positioning be adequate? Could an eLoran receiver and antenna fit in today’s consumer devices?
5. Future uses. Emerging civil uses of GPS for positioning include autonomous ground and air vehicles, navigation to space and in space, and lane-accurate car navigation. Which of these could be served by eLoran?
6. Architecture. To maintain accuracy during a prolonged GPS outage, eLoran would require reference stations to calibrate time-varying propagation errors, as well as a certain number of transmitters for good nationwide geometry and for redundancy, ensuring service even if a transmitter is attacked or is taken off-line for maintenance. What architecture would you recommend to achieve this?
7. Infrastructure cost. What would be the cost of installing the required transmitters, power supplies, reference stations, communication links and control system for the architecture described in the answer to Question 6? Can you reference a recent and independent estimate? To a ballpark figure, what cost fixed-price contract would you accept to implement it? Similarly, what would be the annual costs for operating and maintaining this infrastructure?
8. Impact. eLoran transmitters are large and high-power. Providing positioning across the United States could require building some of them from scratch or significantly reconstructing old Loran sites. What issues — such as environmental, aviation safety and security — would this raise, and how would you recommend they be addressed?
9. Receivers. Assuming all the above were achieved, it would accomplish nothing unless eLoran receivers were widely purchased, installed and used. How much would that cost? Who would pay? Should we assume that “if we build it, they will come”?
10. Alternatives. Given the widespread development of other positioning technologies over the past decade, much has changed since the earlier recommendations for eLoran. How do we know that eLoran is the right investment — or even a needed part of the solution or needed system in a system of systems — for the future of U.S. PNT?
Common threats to GNSS and eLoran could include the following:
1. Cyber attacks. Given that GPS’s OCX is said to be the most cybersecure system built by the U.S. Department of Defense, how would eLoran’s control system be even more cybersecure than OCX, to avoid a common cyber-vulnerability?
2. Physical attacks. Given concerns about possible physical attacks on GPS satellites, which move at multiple km/sec 20,000 km from Earth, would it not be easier to physically attack eLoran transmitters, which are stationary, terrestrial, in remote locations, and hundreds of feet tall and require massive power sources?
3. Space weather. GPS is potentially vulnerable to severe space weather that could damage satellites or temporarily hinder signal propagation from space to Earth. However, severe space weather could also damage the power grid upon which megawatt eLoran transmitters rely. How would eLoran service be protected from the effects of severe space weather, such as a Carrington Event?
Send me your thoughts at the e-mail address below, with “eLoran” in the subject line.
Orolia is providing Atomic Reference Time (ART) Cards to support Meta’s implementation of high-precision timing protocols within its distributed timing infrastructure. The architecture of Orolia ART Cards is powered by the company’s Spectratime mRO-50 mini rubidium atomic-clock technology.
In 2020, Meta began converting its data-center servers to a new time-distribution service based on network time protocol (NTP) and precision time protocol (PTP). The new service, built in-house and later open-sourced, was more scalable and improved the accuracy of timekeeping within the Meta infrastructure from 10 milliseconds to 100 microseconds. Orolia ART Cards will further increase the accuracy, resiliency and adoption of Meta’s new timing platform.
