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Capabilities

Time synchronization

Holding distributed systems in step without depending on a satellite signal.

  • Grid synchronization
  • Telecommunications
Two clock edge trains running out of step, with the offset between them marked

What it is

Distributed systems agree on what happened by agreeing on when it happened. Take away the common reference and the agreement does not fail loudly; it decays. Measurements stop lining up, protection equipment disagrees about the order of events, and the fault is understood long after the damage is done.

Most infrastructure takes that common reference from overhead, which quietly makes a satellite constellation a single point of failure for systems that have nothing to do with navigation. A chip-scale atomic reference changes where the time comes from: each node holds its own, and the network keeps its shared view of order and interval whether or not anything overhead is working.

Example applications

Grid synchronization
Protection and control equipment spread across a transmission network has to act on a shared clock. The moment the grid is most stressed is also the moment the reference is most likely to be unavailable.
Telecommunications
Mobile networks divide the air between users by time. A base station that loses its reference degrades quietly, and the operator sees it as capacity loss rather than as a clock problem.

Talk to us about Time synchronization

Tell us how your nodes get their reference today and what happens to the system when they lose it. That conversation is usually short, and it is usually the one that matters.

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