Primary reference time clocks performance monitoring using GNSS common-view technique in telecommunication networks

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a dramatic demand for stringent time/phase synchronization due to the continuing evolution of mobile network technologies. The primary reference time clock (PRTC) located in core centers provides reference time and phase synchronization signal traceable to a recognized time standard UTC(*) for other clocks within the telecommunication networks. The performance monitoring to secure stringent time/phase is a key point for providing better Quality-of-Services (QoS) in LTE / LTE-Advanced networks. In this paper, we demonstrate PRTC time/phase accuracy monitoring against UTC(*) with our proposed time comparison system for assuring network performance. Furthermore, the system can also be used to remotely calibrate the PRTC by GPS common-view technique. The performance of GNSS-based PRTC is evaluated with direct measurement mode and the GNSS common-view mode by our proposed system, respectively. The analytical results show that the proposed system offers a worthy performance monitoring and remote calibration schemes for monitoring GNSS-based PRTCs cloud in telecommunication networks.