Work

Picosecond-Level Synchronization over Optical Free Space Link Using White Rabbit

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: White Rabbit (WR) time synchronization has an accuracy up to a sub-nanosecond level. However, the current application scenario of WR is limited to wired transmission links. In this paper, we have proposed a time synchronization technique over a free space link using WR. In the WR-based free space synchronization scheme, we replace the original WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) with single-wavelength transmission to reduce the asymmetry of the path and design a high-power optical transceiver module to improve the transmission power. With the scheme, a free space synchronization experiment with a transmission distance of 50 m is conducted. The experimental results show that the RMS (root mean square) time drift of this free space synchronization system is 20.5 ps over a 24 h period, and the TDEV (Time Deviation) of the time synchronization is 14.3 ps at 1 s and 3.9 ps at 20,000 s. The experiment proves that it will be convenient to complete the free space time synchronization network between clock sites with the proposed technique in the future application of complex environments.

Source: Electronics

DOI: 10.3390/electronics14050970

Authors: Peng Zhang, Dong Hou, Ke Liu, Wenjian Zhou, Minghong Li, Lujun Fang

Institution: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Language: English

Topic: Network Time Synchronization Technologies

Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896

Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China