Terrestrial timing signals for the UK
NPLTime Certified® and NPLTime Access® services from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) offer users a time signal that is traceable to Coordinated Universal Time UTC(NPL).
Contact us to find out more about our NPLTime Access® and NPLTime Certified® service offerings.
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- GNSS independent
- Eliminating risks signal interference or loss
- Secure and resilient
- Accurate time stamping
- Ease of connectivity
NPLTime Access®
Providing all UK industry sectors access to a secure timing signal independent of GNSS.
NPLTime Certified®
An assured service with certification that provides end users in the finance sector with a timing capability that underpins traceable time-stamping, latency monitoring and synchronisation.
Four core elements of NPLTime®
Accuracy
NPLTime® is offered with a one microsecond accuracy to UTC(NPL), with service level agreements for accuracy and availabilitiy.
Traceability
NPLTime® is directly traceable to UTC(NPL).
Security
Fibre optic links eliminate GNSS vulnerabilities such as, jamming, spoofing, urban canyon effects and solar storms to ensure resilience and security.
Simple setup
NPLTime® is accessible through NPL service nodes and our resellers.
Designed for resilience
NPLTime® Services offer users a time signal over fibre optic links that is traceable to UTC(NPL), not dependent on GNSS.
Time is more crucial than ever to industry and society. Uses range from every day positioning tools such as satnavs, to playing a key role in industries such as transport, agriculture and other aspects of critical national infrastructure. The use of timing signals are also an integral part of new technologies such as 5G, smart cities, drones and CAVs. Currently most timing signals are derived from satellites.
The 2018 Blackett review highlighted the UK’s dependency on using satellite-derived timing. Requirements are also becoming more demanding, with some applications requiring uncertainties smaller than 1 microsecond and signals that are continuously available.
A precise, resilient and reliable timekeeping source, independent of GNSS, is vital to help prevent serious societal and industrial impact in the event of a cyber-attack, jamming or spoofing.
NPLTime® Digital portal
The NPLTime® digital portal provides an online data reporting service for users and resellers of the NPLTime services® for signal accuracy and availability.
Benefits include:
- Providing confidence to the NPLTime® users
- Offering easier data interrogation and benchmarking
- Improving customer experience
Digital portal reporting metrics
|
NPLTime Access® |
NPLTime Certified® |
Signal accuracy to UTC(NPL) at service nodes |
✓ |
✓ |
Signal availability at service nodes |
✓ |
✓ |
Signal performance at reseller end point devices |
x |
✓ |
Service event log |
x |
✓ |
Billing management for resellers |
x |
✓ |
NPL collaborates with Vodafone on terrestrial timing
Delivering trusted time for UBS infrastructure via NPLTime® Certified
NPLTime Access®– the vital resilient link in Jisc’s Janet network
Trusted timing signals support the deployment of high-performance indoor 5G systems
National Timing Centre programme (NTC)
Led by NPL, the UK’s first nationally distributed time infrastructure will improve security and resilience, communication, and implementation of new technologies, and pave the way for trusted time and frequency across the country.