Microchip Technology has unveiled a new high-accuracy time transfer system capable of providing sub-nanosecond precision over long-haul optical networks, in what the US semiconductor firm describes as a breakthrough for critical infrastructure resilience.
The TimeProvider 4500 v3 grandmaster clock, released on 27th October, enables time distribution with accuracy of up to 5 nanoseconds over distances as great as 800 kilometres. The company said the system offers operators of telecoms, utilities, transport, and defence networks a terrestrial alternative to satellite-based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), which are increasingly seen as vulnerable to disruption and interference.
Governments around the world have urged operators of essential services to strengthen their Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) systems by adopting additional, non-satellite sources of time data. Such measures are designed to safeguard national infrastructure from threats including jamming, spoofing, and space-based outages.
“The TimeProvider 4500 v3 grandmaster is a breakthrough solution that empowers operators to deploy a terrestrial, standards-based timing network with unprecedented accuracy and resilience,” said Randy Brudzinski, corporate vice president of Microchip’s frequency and time systems business unit. “This innovation reflects Microchip’s commitment to delivering the most advanced and reliable timing solutions for the world’s most essential services.”
Unlike most current deployments that rely on GNSS receivers at each grandmaster site, the new system allows synchronisation based on Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) from national laboratories. The system implements High Accuracy Time Transfer (HA-TT), as defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T G.8271.1/Y.1366.1), and can maintain accuracy within 5 nanoseconds across an 800-kilometre optical network—equivalent to about 500 picoseconds per network node.
Microchip said the TimeProvider 4500 v3 supports a so-called “virtual Primary Reference Time Clock” (vPRTC) architecture, which has already been deployed by operators worldwide. The vPRTC approach enables carrier-grade time distribution without the vulnerabilities associated with satellite signals.
The product also represents a step towards compliance with the forthcoming ITU-T G.8272.2 standard, which will define coherent network reference time clocks (cnPRTCs) to ensure stability and accuracy across large telecoms networks even in the event of widespread GNSS unavailability.
The TimeProvider 4500 v3 integrates Microchip’s PolarFire FPGA and Azurite synthesiser technologies to achieve its precision targets. The company said the new model could be deployed within existing optical and Ethernet networks, using standard components such as small form-factor pluggables.
Microchip, headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, is one of the largest suppliers of timing and synchronisation equipment for telecom networks. The TimeProvider 4500 v3 joins the firm’s broader range of IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol grandmaster clocks, which serve both small-scale and high-capacity 5G deployments.
