Why GNSS Timing Is Crucial?
GNSS Timing – Why it is so important?
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a term used for satellite positioning systems. Through global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), electronic receivers that are stationary on the Earth’s surface can accurately determine the latitude, longitude, altitude of their location and the local time.
When there are many IEDs (Intelligent Electronic Devices) on a network with their own clocks this becomes difficult to coordinate, so central time servers become useful. Proper precision timing on a network can maintain a very accurate source of time to keep all IEDs in sync, often within 100ns.
Accurate timing is crucial in scenarios where digital instructions need to be executed at the right time or data is transferred at high rates. It is important for event logging, fault tracing, phase measurement, billing accuracy, locating faults, relay testing, and network synchronization across long distances. GNSS-based timing is often the most cost-effective option for achieving precise timing.
As of 2023, four global systems are operational:
- United States’s Global Positioning System (GPS),
- Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS),
- China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System,
- European Union’s Galileo.
GNSS timing is important because it relies on accurate, synchronized clocks in satellites to provide precise location and time information. Trilateration is used to determine the receiver’s location and local time when at least 4 satellites are visible.
Time servers use this information to forward time signals through the network. Fixed time servers only need location initially, while mobile units require multiple satellite connections for continuous updates.
Learn more about time servers.
What Are The Fields Of Use?
In industries like finance, telecommunications, process automation and power distribution, maintaining precise timing is crucial. GNSS-based timing ensures the synchronization of diverse systems spread across vast geographical areas.
Telecommunication networks rely on accurate timing for data transmission and synchronization between devices. Power grids utilize synchronized time for managing electricity flow and grid stability.
Accurate time in the financial sector has become an increasingly important issue with the new EU and US regulations on the time stamping of financial transactions that were introduced for financial traceability and security.
