One-Way GPS Time Transfer: 2002 Performance

Steven Hutsell, Matthew Forsyth, Charles B. McFarland

Abstract:	The Global Positioning System (GPS), among other duties, serves countless worldwide precise time users. These users are both civilian and military, are located on ground, in air, at sea, and in space. The respective missions of these users span metrology & calibration, research & development, test & evaluation, communication synchronization, and surveillance. The vast majority of these users employ what is called “one-way” synchronization using GPS. One-way synchronization allows users to realize precise time, autonomously and anonymously, using the direct precise time broadcast of GPS. Using data collected, processed, and provided by the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), the authors present an analysis of one-way GPS time transfer performance for FY 2002, utilizing a metric in use since the Initial Operational Capability (IOC) of GPS. This metric describes how well a fixed (surveyed) location user, employing an authorized receiver, tracking one satellite at a time, can obtain precise time using GPS one-way synchronization, without any special augmentation. The performance one-way users experience will vary depending on the particular application. Though no one metric can possibly represent all types of users, the fixed-location analysis provides other types of users a baseline for deriving theoretical assessments of performance that can fairly represent their respectively unique applications.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 34th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting December 3 - 5, 2002 Hyatt Regency Reston Town Center Reston, Virginia
Pages:	69 - 76
Cite this article:	Hutsell, Steven, Forsyth, Matthew, McFarland, Charles B., "One-Way GPS Time Transfer: 2002 Performance," Proceedings of the 34th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Reston, Virginia, December 2002, pp. 69-76.
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