GPS Time Server Specialists Expand into Russia

Following success of their recent expansion into Europe, Galleon Systems have expanded their market presence with a new website in Russian. The time synchronisation and NTP server and GPS time specialist have also employed Russian speaking sales and technical support.

Despite the massive economic downturn, Galleon Systems are a continual success story that have recently employed native speakers in Polish, German, French, Spanish, Italian and English have now added Russian to their team of multilingual employees.

The company’s new ntp server website  is now up and running and the first Russian orders have started to come in.  Managing Director Mark Neal said: “Many companies will sell products globally without offering the relevant support. Many clients rely on our products to keep their networks and businesses running smoothly, which is why we feel it is important to offer the relevant technical support along with the actual hardware itself.

“For this reason we have ensured that any potential customers from Russia and its satellite countries will be able to communicate effectively with members of our staff.”

Atomic Clocks and the GPS Time Server

Atomic clocks have been around since the 1950’s when NPL (National Physical Laboratory) in the UK developed the first reliable caesium based clock. Before atomic clocks, electronic clocks were the most accurate method of keeping track of time but while an electrical clock may lose a second in every week or so, a modern atomic clock will not lose a single second in hundreds of millions of years.

Atomic clocks are not just used to keep track of time. The atomic clock is an integral part of the GPS system (Global Positioning System) as each GPS satellite has its own onboard atomic clock that generates a time signal that is picked up by GPS receivers who can calculate their position by using the precise signal from three or more satellites.

Atomic clocks need to be used as the signal s from the satellites travel at the speed of light and as light travels nearly 300,000 km each second any slight inaccuracy could put navigation out by miles.

A GPS time server is a network time server that uses the time signal from the GPS network’s satellites to synchronise the time on computer networks. A GPS time server often uses NTP (Network Time Protocol) as a method of distributing time which is why these devices are often referred to as NTP GPS time servers.

Computer networks that are synchronised using a dedicated time server are normally synchronised to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and while the GPS signal is not UTC, GPS time, like UTC, is based on International Atomic Time (TAI) and is easily converted by NTP.

GPS Time Server – How they work

GPS time servers are often called many things: NTP time servers, GPS network time servers, GPS NTP servers etc. A time server is merely a device to that computer’s can contact to receive timing information from for purposes of time synchronisation.

The way a time server receives the time is what defines it. A radio referenced time server will receive a time signal from a national physics laboratory via a long wave radio signal. A GPS time server receives a time signal from the Global Positioning System a constellation of satellites designed to provide navigation information.

What makes GPS possible is that onboard each global positioning satellite there is an atomic clock. The time from this clock is broadcast along with the position and velocity of the satellite. It is this information that a satellite navigation receiver uses to work out position by triangulation. It receives the same data from three or more satellites and works out by the time it takes for the transmission from each satellite to reach the receiver.

While the atomic clocks onboard the GPS satellites do not broadcast UTC (Coordinated Universal Time – the civil global timescale) because it is an atomic clock signal and therefore extremely reliable, a GPS time server can easily translate the GPS time into UTC.

Why GPS?

Time synchronisation can be conducted in multiple ways on a computer network. There are many time protocols but NTP (Network Time Protocol) is by far the most used (probably close to 99% of networks use NTP).

Most time servers receive a UTC time signal UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) yet, there are multiple places that NTP can receive a signal from but each has it downsides. The most widely used source of UTC is the Internet but no serious network administrator would dare to use the Internet as a timing source.

Internet timing sources can’t be authenticated using NTP’s security measure and an Internet timing source will exist outside a networks firewall so a TCP/IP port would need to be left open both of these problems could leave a network open to malicious attacks, abuse or even fraud. Another reason why Internet sources should not be used is that a recent survey found less than a third were accurate enough to UTC to be useful and those that were depended on the distance from the client.

Time and frequency transmissions broadcast in longwave are far more secure and far more accurate than any Internet timing source. These transmissions are broadcast by several national physics laboratories and provide a safe, secure and highly accurate method of receiving UTV. Unfortunately not every country has a timing broadcast and even in a country that does the signals are vulnerable to local geography and interference.

GPS however, is available everywhere on the planet, the only downside at all in using a GPS time server is that it needs an antenna to be situated on the roof, which in most cases is not normally an issue.

GPS Time Server – The Synchronisation Choice

GPS (Global Positioning System) is now the preferred method of receiving a UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time source for the purposes of synchronising a computer network.

GPS is an American military controlled system that was opened up for the use of civilians following a terrible air disaster in the late 1980’s. GPS receivers used to be astronomically expensive and all but the most wealthy network administrators would use the GPS signal as a source of UTC time.

However, due to advances in technology in recent years GPS technology has dramatically dropped in price and the GPS time server is now the globally preferred method of receiving a UTC timing source.

Other methods have continually been available of course with national time and frequency transmissions such as MSF in the UK, DCF in Germany and the WWVB signal in the USA having been the most popular method over the last decade.

However, there are drawbacks to using the national time and frequency transmissions. They are all broadcast on similar long-wave frequencies and are vulnerable to topography and interference from weather and other electrical appliances. These time and signal transmissions are also only available in a select few countries and even in the country of origin the local geography can prevent the signal getting through.

One of the reasons GPS is now so popular is that no matter where you are in the world the GPS receiver will always be able to receive a signal just as long as the GPS antenna can obtain a clear view of the sky.

Choosing a dedicated GPS Time Server.

Because of the advancement in satellite navigation technologies and the increased coverage of the American GPS satellite network, many more administrators are choosing GPS as a source for a timing reference to synchronize their time servers too.

This article explores the need for a GPS time server and the things to look out for when selecting one.

Traditionally many more people opted to receive a timing source from either across the Internet or via specialist national time and frequency transmissions. However, the Global Positioning System is now by far the most popular method to receive a UTC time source from.

UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the global timescale based on the time told by atomic clocks which are the most accurate of time keeping devices.

A GPS time server is a relatively simple piece of hardware. Normally it consists of a dedicated NTP server with software, a GPS receiver and a GPS antenna. The antenna is the only drawback in using a dedicated GPS time server as it has to be positioned on the roof to have a clear view of the sky, although some dedicated GPS time servers can still keep time synchronized if they only receive a signal for a few hours a day, although this is not the most accurate way of time synchronization.

Once connected, the GPS time server will receive the time signal from the GPS satellites and then distribute it to all devices that require synchronization.

Most time servers, whether they receive a GPS signal or not, will use Network Time Protocol (NTP) to distribute the time signal to all devices.

NTP is one of the Internet’s oldest protocols and is by far the most widespread time synchronization protocols used. NTP is under constant development and can accurately synchronise a network to within a few milliseconds of UTC time via a dedicated GPS time server.

Why a GPS Time Server

Just as your computer is only as good as the software it is running (and in most cases the operator too), a time server is only as useful as the timing source it uses.

Accuracy is of course the fundamental feature in time servers and Network Time Protocol (NTP) has been designed to ensure the highest accuracy possible is always obtainable.

Unfortunately many administrators opt to use an Internet timing source to run their time server with. Unfortunately several studies of Internet timing references discovered that nearly two thirds were inaccurate by over several seconds (almost an eternity in the world of NTP) and those that weren’t were often too far away from a client to provide reliable accuracy.

Probably the most accurate and widely used method of retrieving a reliable time reference is to use a dedicated GPS Time Server.

The Global Positioning System is ideal to provide an accurate timing reference as each global positioning satellite contains an atomic clock that beams timing information directly to Earth. As these satellites are in a relatively low and known orbit the distance the signal travels can be compensated for by the GPS time server ensuring a high level of accuracy.

Another benefit is that a GPS time server will always be able to receive a signal no matter where in the world it is situated as long as the GPS antenna can have a clear view of the sky, enabling it to communicate with a satellite.

A GPS time server are also relatively inexpensive and advances in GPS technology means the costs are perennially falling. There is a downside to a GPS server in that to ensure the antenna can spot a satellite it needs to be situated  on certain buildings this can be expensive, impractical or even impossible as the maximum cable length should never exceed 100 metres.

Galileo – GPS Time Server Implications

In the field of high precision time keeping and frequency measurement the Global Positioning System (GPS) has had its own way for a long time.

The signals broadcast by the American Military’s Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) has provided timing references since the late 1990’s and is used worldwide as a timing source in hundreds of thousands of GPS time servers. Now GPS is to receive competition from not just the proposed European Galileo system but the Russians and Chinese are attempting to get into the act.

Currently the GPS is the world’s only fully functioning, global navigation satellite system, however, the European Union and European Space Agency agreed in 2002 for a European alternative called Galileo which is scheduled to be fully operational by 2012-2013.

The Russian Glonass system, which was fully operational during the height of the Cold War but had fallen into disrepair after the collapse of Soviet Union, has also been vowed to be patched up and to be fully operational again by 2010. A Chinese system called Compass is also being developed although some doubt exists as to whether it will be a stand alone system or be incorporated into Europe’s Galileo network, India have also proposed there own system.

Galileo which is expected to work alongside the GPS system providing timing references from 2013. The broadcasts will be similar to those currently received by a GPS time server and the two systems should work well together as Galileo is designed to be interoperable with GPS.

This means there will be close correspondence between the signals from the two systems, and most of the frequencies used by the Galileo satellite signals will be similar to GPS signals. This will  increase accuracy of Galileo as well as increasing the capabilities of GPS as only minor software alterations will be needed for a  current GPS time server to be able to locate Galileo satellites too. The great advantage of this is that it will be able to see around twice as many satellites providing better accuracy

Although Galileo is intended to have somewhat better positioning and timing performance than the current GPS system, the difference will be reduced or even disappear with a planned modernisation of GPS, designed to ensure the US system doesn’t lag behind the next generation.

Galileo is expected to be fully operational, by 2013, with timing and positioning signals available at the same time.

Benefits of a GPS Time Server

The American GPS system is currently revolutionising the way we navigate. Once a secretive Cold War military weapon it now adorns the dashboards of one in three cars.

But GPS is much more than a handy navigational tool. The constellation of 24 satellites each contain some of the world’s most accurate chronometers in the shape of atomic clocks. These provide such accuracy in timing that a million years could pass and not even a second would have been gained or lost

These clocks are what enable us to pinpoint our location on Earth as a GPS receiver can workout how long the timing signal took to reach it and therefore how far away from the satellite it is. Using three or four satellites means an exact location can be pin-pointed by triangulation. Atomic clocks need to be used as just one seconds inaccuracy could mean a location could be hundreds of thousands of miles out because of the vast distances radio signals can travel in that time.

These timing signals can also be utilised to provide extremely accurate synchronisation for computer networks by receiving the timing signal via a GPS antenna connected to a GPS time server. A GPS time server uses NTP (Network Time Protocol) to synchronise machines on a network.

Because of the accuracy of the atomic clocks a GPS Time Server can obtain an accuracy to within a few hundred nanoseconds of UTC time (a nano is one billionth of a second)

UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is a global timescale developed after the invention of the atomic clock. It is a standardised time scale base on Greenwich Meantime but allows for the minute slowing of the Earth’s rotation (caused by the Moon’s gravity).

A GPS time server can also receive a timing signal from anywhere in the world (as long as it can get a clear view of the sky)

Accuracy in Timekeeping – Using a GPS Time Server

Computer time synchronisation is becoming more and more important as we become ever reliant on the Internet for our day-to-day business.

Whether it doing the shopping from our PC at home or whether we work in a global trading company. The Internet is fast becoming the world’s new high street.

Time synchronisation is therefore more vital and relevant today than it has ever been. Time synchronisation errors are commonplace, just check your inbox you may find that email that has just arrived may technically not have been sent yet. This may not cause you any problems but what happens if you book and airline ticket on a computer system that is not synchronised?  You may find the plane seat has been sold after you had bought it or you could have the last bid on an Internet auction site only to find somebody else wins the lot because their earlier bid was on a computer with a faster clock.

In some industries time synchronisation is not only essential, but without it trading would become impossible, just think of the stock exchange where millions are won and lost in seconds.

Fortunately time synchronisation is not the headache it used to be. It is now possible to connect to an accurate UTC (Coordinated Universal Time – a global standardised time scale based on the time told by atomic clocks) time source with relatively low cost equipment.

A GPS time server is a relatively inexpensive and simple device that receives a timing signal directly from a global positioning satellite. Because GPS satellites contain atomic clocks (essential in providing accurate positioning) the signal of which can be picked up and used to synchronise an entire network.

A dedicated GPS time server is relatively simple and straightforward to install and comprises of a GPS receiver equipped with NTP software (network time protocol – software used to synchronise a network) and a GPS antenna. The only difficulties faced with the installation of a GPS time server is that the antenna needs a good view of the sky to ensure it can receive the satellite information.