SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TIMING PRODUCT COMBINING GNSS RECEIVER & EXTERNAL CLOCK

Last Updated: 13/07/2022 08:23     Created at: 13/07/2022 08:23

Final Presentation of NAVISP Project EL2-054 now available:

On Monday, July 11, 2022, GMV NSL presented the results of the NAVISP project “ePRTC Implementation with Advanced GNSS Capabilities (EPIC).” About 30 people from industry and research followed the interesting presentation and the subsequent interactive Q&A session.

With the development of new GNSS systems, particularly Galileo, and the availability of low-cost atomic clock technologies, an opportunity to develop new timing products that combine a high-quality GNSS timing receiver and a highly stable clock to meet ePRTC requirements opened up. 

ePRTC stands for Enhanced Primary Reference Time Clock and was developed to address the growing problem of GNSS vulnerability, by generating time through an independent time scale aligned with GNSS, maintaining the autonomy of the phase, time, and frequency signals generated by ePRTC. The ePRTC standard, introduced by the ITU, defines a synchronization source that provides the precision, robustness and reliability required for today's and next-generation telecommunications, banking, data centres and power distribution networks. 

The EPIC project combined some of the most advanced techniques available for time provision and transmission and designed and developed an enclosed solution, thus implementing additional features to enhance the robustness and quality of the solution. For this purpose, both hardware and software have been developed or integrated. In the EPIC demonstration, the hardware consists of elements such as an external passive hydrogen maser, a clock adapter, a frequency micro-stepper, as well as a GNSS receiver and antenna. The software is able to process the new Coordinated Universal Time Offset (UTCO) RINEX format, which provides detailed UTCO and leap second information jointly, which allows easy analysis, processing and detection of anomalies. 

Within the scope of the project and thanks to the support of NAVISP, GMV NSL has succeeded in developing a promising and market-ready product, the WANtime station (presented in the picture above), which is now a registered trademark at European and UK level, showing the role of NAVISP in supporting the generation of intellectual property rights.  In addition, by combining all these technologies, GMV NSL has been able to enter into a business that covers current market needs in terms of reliability and quality of service.

The project was part of NAVISP Element 2, which aims to maintain and improve the capabilities and competitiveness of the participating
States' industry in the global market for satellite navigation and, more broadly, PNT technologies and services.

More detailed information can be found in the slides of the Final Presentation.