Data and Time Transfer Using SONET Radio

Gary M. Graceffo

Abstract:	The need for precise knowledge of time and frequency has become ubiquitous throughout our society. The areas of astronomy, navigation and high-speed wide-area networks are among a few of the many consumers of this type of information. GPS has the potential to be the most comprehensive source of precise timing information developed to date; however, the introduction of Selective Availability has made it difficult for many users lo recover this information from the GPS system with the precision required for today's systems. The system described in this paper is a "SONET Radio Data and Time Transfer System.' The objective of this system is to provide precise time and frequency information to a variety of end-users using a two-way data and time-transfer system. Although time and frequency transfers have been done for many years, this system is unique in that time and frequency information are embedded into existing communications traffic. This eliminates the need to make the transfer of time and frequency information a dedicated function of the communications system. For this system, the Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET) has been selected as the transport format from which precise time is derived. SONET has been selected because of its high data rates and its increasing acceptance throughout the industry This paper details a proof-of-concept initiative to perform embedded time and frequency transfers using SONET Radio.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 27th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting November 29 - 1, 1995 The Doubletree Hotel at Horton Plaza San Diego, California
Pages:	313 - 322
Cite this article:	Graceffo, Gary M., "Data and Time Transfer Using SONET Radio," Proceedings of the 27th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, San Diego, California, November 1995, pp. 313-322.
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