Secure, reliable, extremely accurate and traceable timing services have never been more important than they are today. In the era of 4G and 5G, precise network synchronisation is critical for nearly all digital networks, and more stringent network stability requirements. Whether you are a company engaged in electronic trading, a telecommunications provider, or a data centre seeking to deliver timing services to tenants, accurate and reliable timing is essential and can make the difference between failure and compliance.
An important trend in the world of network timekeeping is rapidly increasing accuracy. Milliseconds have become nanoseconds and nanoseconds are becoming picoseconds. What factors are driving this race towards ever more accurate timing and network synchronisation? And what are the challenges and benefits that come with moving into the realm of nanoseconds and picoseconds? Read on and find out!
What Fuels the Race towards Greater Timing Accuracy?
The need and desire for closer timekeeping accuracy has several driving forces. First, the emergence of 5G networks requires very precise timekeeping to guarantee a sufficient amount of bandwidth without interfering with other networks and applications. Currently, you need a timing accuracy of 1.5 milliseconds or better to pull this off.
The use of more complex, ever more advanced apps is another driver of timing accuracy moving into nanosecond and picosecond territory. Due to the democratisation of technology, more and more companies and individuals will gain access to highly sophisticated applications that use AI, VR, machine learning and AR. The increasing number of frequencies that come with modern network and communication technology also means that very precise timing is essential to coordinate between them.
Requirements for wireless protocols continue to increase with the proliferation of mobile phones and other wireless communication devices. To accommodate the currently booming user base, the wireless spectrum must be carefully managed to improve bandwidth and channel efficiency. Wireless communication performance is highly dependent upon precise time and frequency, so improvements in accurate timekeeping methods will permit better spectrum utilisation. This, in turn, permits more users as well as more bandwidth per user.
On the operational side, we see an increasing need for secure, highly scalable and resilient timing networks. Good timing not only buys you time when problems arise, but also makes it much easier to be compliant with rules and regulations. Legally binding deadlines and timeframes for online trading are prime examples of the latter.
Recent High-Performance Timing Systems
How does the need for ever-increasing timing materialise in the real world? Let us consider a few relatively recent clock and timing systems that pushed the boundaries – achieving what seemed nearly impossible not so long ago.
Enhanced Primary Reference Time Clock (ePRTC)
An eRPTC is an autonomous source of time that uses one or two co-located atomic clocks to provide the required performance for both time and frequency. It even manages to do this when connection to GNSS is lost.
Virtual Primary Reference Time Clock (vPRTC)
The virtual Primary Reference Time Clock (vPRTC) is a highly secure and resilient network-based timing architecture that has been developed to meet the expanding needs of modern critical infrastructures. These include 5G, transportation, data centres and power utilities. This timing system treats the network as one clock, using systems of clocks in different formats and blending several proven timing technologies into a centralised and protected source location. VPRTC uses fibre optics and high-accuracy boundary clocks to establish nanosecond timing precision to UTC.
Coherent Network Primary Reference Time Clock (cnPRTC)
cnPRTC is a relatively new synchronisation network architecture that provides the highest currently available synchronisation network resilience level. The system consists of several interconnected clocks that cooperate at the highest network level. Each clock’s performance is continuously monitored, whilst the whole group of clocks is combined under a tight timescale algorithm. This creates stability and network-wide ePRTC time accuracy that reaches nanosecond precision.
High-Performance Boundary Clock (HPBC)
A high-performance boundary clock allows you to synchronise several ‘subordinated’ clocks across subnets defined by a router or other devices that have the potential to block the transition of messages and data. A boundary clock typically eliminates the large fluctuations in communication latency generated by routers and similar devices. Some of the modern and most advanced high-performance boundary clocks can already meet 5 nanosecond errors.
Such speed allows you to connect a chain of these HPBC devices to cover very long distances over an optical network. The result? High-redundancy, high-precision, and a reliable way to transfer precise time and phase over your national network to protect your phase quality at every stage. And all of this without a high dependency on GPS.
Pushing it Down and Down: new Product Builds
We have seen that the most advanced timing solutions have already reached the accuracy domain of nanoseconds. The expectation is that even better clocks will soon take timing accuracy into the realm of picoseconds. Additionally, new product builds are going to accelerate this trend and give more organisations access to lower cost products that allow them to push down timing latency.
A prime example of this is Network Function Virtualisation (NFV). This technology allows you to load standard communication hardware with software to make it compatible with 5G. NFV makes it possible to separate communication services from dedicated hardware, such as routers and firewalls. This type of set-up has a couple of big advantages:
- Lower costs, since virtualised services can run on fewer, less expensive and generic servers instead of proprietary hardware
- NFV buys you time when it comes to identifying and solving network and timing problems
Network Slicing in 5G
Another interesting technology is network slicing. It allows you to build one or more virtual 5G networks for yourself on top of a shared physical network. A telecom provider delivers the data and shared physical network while you create your own virtual network(s) on top of this shared infrastructure. Within the boundaries set by the underlying physical network, each slice of a network can have its own topology, security rules and performance characteristics. If you also have a distributed cloud, it’s even possible to build your own virtual data centre on top of 5G.
Pushing the Envelope? How to Stay in Control
Dealing with more complex networks and pushing the limits of timing accuracy into nanosecond and picosecond territory comes with challenges. You start to work in areas where even a change in a minor airflow can affect timing accuracy. For example, tests show that the noise of a fan can cause 12 extra nanoseconds of lag.
This means that you really have to consider your architecture when you strive to push the boundaries of timing accuracy. We already see that companies who rely heavily on nanosecond timekeeping often do not use fans anymore. Identifying and solving timing issues in modern networks also requires a certain level of continuous learning since – as opposed to older networks – timing is now in with all the other traffic.
How Chronos Helps
Chronos specialises in high-quality and resilient synchronisation and timing technologies. Working closely with our customers and their evolving requirements, our team of technical experts provides complete solutions. From testing equipment in the lab to planning, and from rolling out solutions to managing timekeeping in your networks: we can assist you every step of the way!
We continually anticipate, explore and investigate new, innovative methods of transferring precise time. Delivering the solutions, the components, the knowledge and the service assurance tools, Chronos enables communications networks to adopt, adapt and trust time, timing and location technology whenever it is required, anywhere in the world.
Would you like to find out more about our services and solutions? Then feel free to contact us. Give us a call at +44 (0) 1594 862200, send an email to sales@chronos.uk or fill out the contact form on our website.