Based on the current practice of national metrological laboratories, identifying the additional necessities of the timing users, DEMETRA will define and develop a prototype of a European time disseminator, based on EGNSS.
Nine different time services are proposed for demonstration by consortium partners. The DEMETRA partnership, including Scientific Institutions, GNSS Industries, and a Service Provider cover the different faces of the project, including an analysis of commercial potential in terms of market and business development.
The aim of DEMETRA is the demonstration of feasibility for providing EGNSS early Time services to end-users. It also acts as a test bed to support and validate new times services developed in the future.
In the frame of DEMETRA, the main objectives identified are:
Innovations – The project have evaluated new timing services to fill the gaps to the currently available services in different industries and eventually design new concepts based on GNSS signals and related performances.
Pilot applications – The project aims at assessing and validating the technical and economic viability of new or improved technology, in an operational environment, hence promoting them in new market sectors;
Galileo Early Services.
Certification – Timing services are certified in the context of this project through users’ demonstration and independent evaluation of their time;
Long-term standards – The implementation of European regulations and standards for the synchronisation of timing services related to GNSS applications.
The DEMETRA project will also inform and assist legal and social acceptance of future common standards, thus encouraging the adoption of ENGSS-related technologies.
The nine services developed in the scope of DEMETRA are listed hereafter:
Service 01 – Time Broadcasting over TV/Radio links
The service allows the dissemination of time, by adopting the Radio and TV signals, conceiving analog and digital modulations.
Service 02 – – Certified Trusted Time Distribution using NTP
The purpose is to implement a new innovative service to distribute authenticated NTP time and its back audit to end-users as well as deliver cryptographic time stamping service.
Service 03 – Time & Frequency Distribution over Optical Lin
Time dissemination will be provided via the White Rabbit Optical Link, which was first developed for time transfer over relatively short fibre links: in the frame of the project, it will be experimented the Extended Range technology to cover wider areas. A novel time signal based on Modulated Coherent Time will be tested.
Service 04 – Time & Frequency Distribution via GEO Satellite
The system disseminates time and frequency in real-time via geostationary satellite. The proposed technology is based on consolidated telecommunication techniques (FDMA) that are applied in an innovative way, thus allowing for a reliable, competitive and cost-effective final system.
Service 05 – User GNSS Receiver Calibration
Real application of GNSS equipment calibration to users requiring accurate time transfer using GNSS. The calibration will determine the hardware delays of the GNSS signals inside the antenna, the antenna cable and the receiver.
Service 06 – Certified Time Steering
Improvement of medium-term stability for oscillators slaved to Galileo by real time correction streaming (similar to RTK for positioning)
Service 07 – Time Monitoring & Steering
This service aims to monitor the users’ atomic clocks and time scales in near real time (NRT) at nanosecond accuracy level. It provides the users with a set of KPIs about its GNSS stations functionality and in alerting the users about any abnormal behaviour of their clocks or time scales (or GNSS equipment). Additionally, the service will provide to the user information for the steering of its atomic clock and time scale.
Service 08 – Time Integrity
The Time Integrity Service aims to test the capability to deliver a time integrity service to the GNSS users providing integrity information to improve user timing accuracy as well as positioning. The status of Galileo satellite clocks is continuously monitored, detecting in real time possible anomalies and generating automatic alerts in case the satellite is considered unusable. The Service is additionally monitoring the timing parameters broadcast in the Galileo Navigation Message, providing to the users a validation and performance assessment of the timing information disseminated by the Galileo System.
Service 09 – All-in-one Time Synchronization Solution
This service is also called SynchroNet, whose mission is to provide a GNSS-based synchronisation infrastructure and service for a scalable network of atomic clock driven nodes. Added values are:
Seamless scalability
Fault resistance
Continuous performance and integrity monitoring
Adaptability to both internal timescale and external UTC reference.
| N | Milestone Name | Estimated Date | Tentative Date | Objective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KickOff Review (KO) | T0 | January 20-21, 2015 | All partners clearly understand their role. |
| 2 | Specification Review (SR) | T0+3 | April 23-24, 2015 | The demonstrator requirements are understood. |
| 3 | Design Review (DR) | T0+7 | July 15-16, 2015 | The design of the demonstrator is understood and each partner has a clear role. |
| 4 | Qualification Review (QR) | T0+11 | November 25-26, 2015 | Each TSI is realized and verified according to the specifications. |
| 5 | Mid Term Review (MTR) | T0+14 | March 3-4, 2016 | Management of H2020 projects. |
| 6 | Experimentation Readiness Review (ERR) | T0+14 | March 3-4, 2016 | The complete demonstrator is assembled, Integrated and validated at INRIM. |
| 7 | Experimentation%on Review 1 (ER1) | T0+17 | May 18-19, 2016 | The closed loop test is finished and test results are understood and consolidated. |
| 8 | Experimentation%on Review 2 (ER2) | T0+21 | October 19-20, 2016 | The end to end test is finished and test results are understood and consolidated. |
| 9 | Final Review (FR) | T0+23 | December 14-15, 2016 | The demonstrator is validated according to user needs and dissemination/exploitation has a clear way forward. |
The DEMETRA project has received funding from the European GNSS Agency under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 640658.
