Looking to add more resiliency to long-haul optical transmissions, Microchip Technology has introduced a timing solution that will deliver sub-nanosecond accuracy for time distribution across 800 kilometers.
Governments are looking to ensure uninterrupted operations of these long-haul transmissions through new time sources alongside global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) provided by infrastructure operators.
Microchip’s TimeProvider 4500 (TP4500) v3 grandmaster clock is designed to complement other timing solutions in the positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) sector. The TP4500 provides a resilient, terrestrial solution for precise timing to ease any physical obstruction, security and signal interference that may happen with GNSS-dependent deployments, Microchip said.
The TP4500 system can be configured with multiple operation modes for end-to-end architecture known as virtual PRTC (vPRTC) that can deliver PRTC accuracy over a long-distance optical network. vPRTC is a carrier-grade architecture for terrestrial distribution of HA-TT that has been widely deployed in operator networks globally.
Microchip said the TP4500 is a step toward support of the ITU-T G.8272.2 standard, which defines a coherent network reference time clock (cnPRTC) in amendment 2 (2024). This allows for a robust and resilient timekeeping solution in a telecom network.
