Microchip Technology has released its MD-990-0011-B family of plug-in timing modules, delivering turnkey, high-precision synchronization for data center servers and 5G virtualized radio access networks (vRAN).
Developed in collaboration with Intel, the MD-990-0011-B timing module is designed for seamless compatibility with Intel Xeon 6 SoC-powered server platforms, supporting both OEMs and ODMs in building future-ready systems. By leveraging Intel’s foundational vRAN architecture, the module enables robust, low-latency time synchronization, which is essential for distributed AI workloads and real-time applications.
Engineered for the reliability and scalability required by cloud infrastructure, virtualization and high-availability deployments, the MD-990-0011-B supports automatic source selection and locking across GNSS, synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) and precision time protocol (PTP). This flexibility supports continuous, accurate timing even as network demands evolve.
The MD-990-0011-B timing modules are available in two variants. MD-990-0011-BC01 offers eight hours of holdover performance; MD-990-0011-BA01 offers four hours of holdover performance. These timing modules consolidate several of Microchip’s advanced technologies into a single, highly integrated solution. Key components include:
Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) synthesizer (ZL80132B). Two independent digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) channels for flexible and resilient synchronization
Oven controlled crystal oscillators (OCXOs, OX-22x). Provide up to eight hours of holdover, ensuring stable timing during GNSS outages or network disruptions
MCP9808 temperature sensor. Supports enhanced, environmental monitor 24LC024 EEPROM implementing board configuration and VC-820for low jitter performance
By unifying these critical timing components into a single plug-in module, the MD-990-0011-B streamlines server architecture, reduces design complexity and simplifies the supply chain. Its modular design enables rapid installation and simplified maintenance, minimizing downtime and facilitating effortless upgrades, key advantages for dynamic data center and 5G network environments.
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.
Merger to deliver high-end performance and ultra-accurate timing and frequency products for commercial, critical infrastructure and defense markets worldwide
Orolia has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Seven Solutions, a global innovator in White Rabbit sub-nanosecond time transfer and synchronization technology. This transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and approvals required by the Spanish government and is expected to close before the end of the year.
This is Orolia’s 11th acquisition in the past seven years.
The merger with Seven Solutions, based in Granada, will enhance Orolia’s portfolio for defense, aerospace, data centers, telecom, financial services, smart grids and other critical infrastructure industries, and will enable the next-generation applications dependent on ultra-precise, resilient timing and frequency technology.
“Orolia and Seven Solutions under one umbrella will combine our world-leading technologies to draw a new frontier in network timing to sub-nanosecond levels, delivering the most robust and accurate resilient PNT solutions for our customers,” said Orolia CEO Jean-Yves Courtois. “Seven Solutions’ long history of delivering cutting-edge time distribution solutions to sectors like telecommunications, smart grids, aerospace, defense and scientific facilities aligns perfectly with Orolia’s DNA.”
Orolia and Seven Solutions will integrate global sales, marketing, product development and operations.
Orolia’s full-scale, modular approach to resilient PNT includes atomic clocks with a combination of GNSS signals protected with interference detection and mitigation technology, together with low-Earth-orbit secure alternative signals. The addition of Seven Solutions’ products will deliver terrestrial sub-nanosecond time distribution from distant and potentially redundant locations.
“We believe the union of our companies will produce the future of time transfer and frequency distribution solutions in terms of accuracy, reliability and interoperability,” said Rafael Rodriguez, chief technology officer and co-founder of Seven Solutions. “Finance, 5G telecommunications, data centers and hyperscalers have new and upgraded functionalities requiring ultra-accurate time distribution accuracy. To maximize interoperability, our solution for time transfer is based on the White Rabbit concept that has been pushed over the last decade to become the basis of the standard high accuracy time transfer profile (within the recent release of IEEE 1588 of precision time protocol).”
Orolia and Seven Solutions are members of the Open PNT Industry Alliance. The international organization focuses on market concepts that strengthen economic and national security by supporting government efforts to implement resilient PNT capabilities for critical infrastructure.
Dual-frequency timing module provides anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities
Photo: Trimble
Trimble has introduced its first dual-frequency embedded timing module that provides next-generation networks with 5-nanosecond accuracy.
Surface mountable, the Trimble RES 720 GNSS timing module can be integrated into network equipment. It uses L1 and L5 GNSS signals to provide superior protection to jamming and spoofing, mitigates multipath in harsh environments, and adds security features to make it suitable for resilient networks.
Precise timing and synchronization optimizes and improves wireless network performance. At 19 x 19 millimeters, the RES 720 module provides a low-cost, easy-to-use, highly accurate and reliable GPS timing source for critical infrastructure in a broad range of industries. The RES 720 is suitable for 5G Open RAN/XHaul, smart grids, data centers, industrial automation and satellite communication networks, as well as calibration services and perimeter monitoring applications.
The RES 720 meets the resilient timing requirement mandated by the U.S. 2020 Executive Order (EO13095) for timing services and critical infrastructure operators. Using dual-frequency (L1 and L5), RES 720 provides better multipath detection capabilities than single frequency, and provides protection against signal jamming and spoofing. Multi-band capability helps compensate for the ionospheric error from multi-GNSS satellite constellations, while reducing the timing error under clear skies to less than 5 nanoseconds. To further improve its accuracy locally, the RES 720 module features differential timing modes for highly accurate local timing.
Powered by Trimble’s Smart GNSS Assurance technology, the RES 720 offers protection against jamming and hacking of signals with automatic fallback to available GNSS signals. Infrastructure equipment suppliers, system integrators and network operators can benefit by integrating highly accurate synchronization capabilities into their network and synchro-phasor devices, while enabling resilient timing for critical infrastructure.
The RES 720 is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2021.
By Jeremy Onyan, Director, TIme Sensitive Networks, Orolia
Cybersecurity is critical to all facets of the internet. Companies spend millions on cybersecurity every year. Still, often-overlooked areas degrade security. A key example of this is time.
Time plays an essential role in synchronizing core business and network systems. It supports authentication protocols as well as accurate log files critical for an audit trail — necessary for any cyber forensics program. As such, synchronization is often a requirement for network security standards.
A deployment of network time protocol (NTP) synchronizes a local system to a time server. The time source can come from within the network or outside of it.
NTP over the internet. NTP time servers are widely available on the internet. National authorities operate internet time servers based on extremely accurate atomic clocks, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) or the U.S. Naval Observatory.
But even with these sources, many factors impact traceability. According to ntp.org, “If business, organization or human life depends on having correct time or can be harmed by it being wrong, you shouldn’t ‘just get it off the internet’.”
One problem with time synchronization is the variability of network conditions. Network load, variable path delays and firewall settings can impact time quality on the local system. To illustrate this effect, we can use the time-quality monitoring feature of a time server with a built-in GPS receiver as its reference that is accurate to tens of nanoseconds. NTP can be used to compare it to another GPS time server on a local area network. The offset is around 15-20 microseconds (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The comparison between two GPS time servers on the same LAN using NTP results in 15–20 microseconds offset. (Chart: Orolia)
We connected the SecureSync time server to some of the most popular internet time servers. The variation result, shown in Figure 2, is as high as tens of milliseconds — 1,000 times worse than NTP across a local area network. If we assume all the time servers are accurate, then the difference is solely due to greater path delay and other dynamic conditions. This variation is enough to question the traceability of time from the internet.
Figure 2. The comparison of internet time servers as measured by NTP on a local GPS time server. The scale is 1,000 times greater than in Figure 1. (Chart: Orolia)
The internet obscures time traceability. Perhaps more important for a security-critical network is the validity of the source used by the time server that distributes time to your network. Time from GPS/GNSS signals is recognized as the most accurate, available and traceable time source.
GPS/GNSS-based time servers are easy and simple appliances to add to the local network. Even when different GPS/GNSS time servers are deployed in different locations, they will provide the same time regardless of geography. What’s more, GPS/GNSS as a local time source can be monitored, so its logs can become part of the audit trail.
Of the seven internet time servers monitored over a 24-hour period, 20 different time sources were identified. Less than half of the sources could be identified as coming directly from GPS/GNSS. In one case, GPS/GNSS time was distributed through three different time servers.
The best practice of using NTP server pools is one reason why there are more sources than time servers. Server pools rotate among various internet time servers, each with their own source of time, to reduce the chance of one bad or unavailable time server catastrophically affecting the synchronization. But this is a problem for traceability. The source of time is not known, nor can it even be determined.
Indeterminate source identification, indeterminate accuracy variation and the inability to log the resulting time synchronization calls into question the efficacy of getting time from the internet. Internet time servers are also subject to being spoofed (bad NTP data sent from a faked IP address) and to direct attacks, including NTP poisoning, replay and denial of service.
When there is a business-critical need to trace time to an accurate source, a GPS/GNSS-based time server should be deployed on the local network.
ViaLiteHD Blue OEM module, one of the available formats for the GPS RF over fiber link. (Photo: ViaLink)
Carrying timing signals over optical fiber links to 10+ km, ViaLite’s new GNSS/GPS Fiber Extension Kit has been successfully qualified for use with Microsemi’s timing and synchronization products.
Included in the kit is the ViaLiteHD GPS Link, which is designed for providing a remote GNSS/GPS signal or derived timing reference to equipment located where there is no reception, such as inside buildings, tunnels and mines.
ViaLite designs and manufactures RF over fiber links/systems, support modules, rack chassis and outdoor enclosures. It is a division of Pulse Power & Measurement.
The kit is suitable for GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou bands, and the links provide a wide dynamic range with negligible signal degradation from noise or interference.
ViaLite worked closely with Microsemi engineering and product management teams to create the optimized extension kit. Simple single-link extensions are available from both Microsemi and ViaLite, and more complex distributed systems can be defined and supplied by ViaLite.
“We are honored to have been selected by Microsemi as a global supplier for GNSS fiber-optic link equipment,” said ViaLite director of sales Craig Somach.
Microsemi provides synchronization services that assist customers with the planning, deployment and maintenance of synchronization infrastructure.
Their systems need to meet various levels of redundancy, provide multiple timing and frequency outputs, and apply the most accurate GNSS and satcom techniques for measuring offsets between geographically dispersed clocks.
The systems are employed across a wide range of industries, including communications, data centers, aerospace, defense, industrial, financial services, government, oil and gas, power and transportation.
