Galileo System Time Physical Generation

Xavier Stehlin, Qinghua Wang, Florent Jeanneret, Pascal Rochat, Edoardo Detoma

Abstract:	The Precise Timing Facility (PTF) is one of the key facilities of the Galileo ground segment. Its major task is to generate and maintain an accurate, stable, and precise Galileo System Time (GST). Physical representation of GST should be connected to at least one observation station within the network. The PTF is designed with a structure similar to a Timing Laboratory, but with the necessary redundancies in order to be able to work autonomously. The current paper gives a deeper view on equipment necessary to generate physical GST signals. It covers in particular the atomic clock ensemble, internal redundancies management, and the phase stepper performance in order not to degrade the active Hydrogen Maser (HM) performance. Moreover, to guarantee the continuous GST generation, the backup HM steering algorithm allows a seamless switchover between the backup and primary HMs in case of failure of the latter.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 38th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting December 7 - 9, 2006 Hyatt Regency Reston Town Center Reston, Virginia
Pages:	395 - 406
Cite this article:	Stehlin, Xavier, Wang, Qinghua, Jeanneret, Florent, Rochat, Pascal, Detoma, Edoardo, "Galileo System Time Physical Generation," Proceedings of the 38th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Reston, Virginia, December 2006, pp. 395-406.
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