Consistently available and accurate timing is a commodity we often take for granted, but its integration with technology impacts us all. There is worldwide dependency on timing accuracy, and it will impact how, for example, autonomous vehicles and automated machinery respond to events, make decisions and are safe.
Our digital infrastructure is underpinned by timing. It is key for phase synchronisation of the power grid, synchronisation of telecoms and broadcast networks, traceable timestamping for regulatory compliance in the financial sector and timestamps for safety critical data. There is increasing demand in the UK and beyond for ever higher precision, traceable time and frequency to enable growth across many sectors, including future data networks, autonomous vehicle infrastructures, smart cities, factories of the future and distributed ledger platforms.
The National Timing Centre (NTC) was set up in response to the many security, safety and high precision industrial development challenges. Led by NPL, the NTC will deliver trusted and assured time and frequency distribution across the UK supporting national resilience, stimulating industrial innovation and addressing the skills gap in time and synchronisation solutions.
The Government has prioritised the security of UK telecoms networks by building a healthy, innovative and competitive supply chain. The Diversification Taskforce used the Government’s strategy as the basis for its work and focused on how to deliver the ambitions that the Government has set out. The report outlines findings and recommendations in four key areas:
The extract below is from the Telecoms Diversification Taskforce Findings and Report (item 79, April 2021), regarding Time Distribution
“The telecoms sector has done a lot of work with timing experts to understand reliance on timing over recent years, however, next generation telecoms technologies are likely to rely on very accurate, synchronised time signals and assured, primary sources are likely to be necessary. Much of this is currently being led by the National Physical Laboratory who are looking at this issue and working closely with both industry and Government, however continued support of their work would be useful. The Government should continue to invest in and develop domestic capability in this area.”
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