News

Fibre link implemented in EMRP project delivers UTC within Finland according to international recommendations

Following a recommendation from its international advisory board, EMRP project Accurate time/frequency comparison and dissemination through optical telecommunication networks (SIB02 NEAT-FT) initiated a long-distance timing study using the Precision Time Protocol – White Rabbit (PTR-WR). PTR-WR is a tool used to synchronise clocks with a sub-nanosecond synchronisation accuracy.

The tool assessed the performance and reliability of a 1000 km fibre link, between VTT sites in Espoo and Kajaani in Finland. Another WR-PTP implementation was established between Delft and Amsterdam in Netherlands, by cascading two links of 137 km each. The results of comparing remote atomic clocks using PTP-WR and more traditional global navigation satellite system (GNSS) techniques were recently published.

The results were used to support the implementation of a fibre link capable of delivering UTC from the NMI in Finland (VTT MIKES) to the time-stamping authority in Finland according to international telecommunication recommendations. More recently the same technique is used for linking MIKES VTT to the Metsähovi radio astronomy observatory.

The knowledge and experience gathered on the PTR-WR will be disseminated to industrial organisations for applications in telecommunication networks through EMPIR project Time synchronisation impact enabling future network communication (15SIP04 TIMEFUNC).