One-way time transfer for large area through tropospheric scatter

Time synchronization is the backbone of the whole system activities. In this paper, we investigate the potential of applying one-way time transfer in troposcatter considering available remote time transfer mechanisms are not effective for application's needs. First, the one-way troposcatter time transfer system model is established and clock offsets are analyzed. Then we focus on troposcatter propagation time delays, and approximate the real delays based on Snell theorem and refractivity profile models in case of atmosphere refraction. At last, one-way troposcatter time broadcasting for large-area network time synchronization is set up, and n−1 PPS mechanism in one time dissemination cycle is proposed to cancel most troposcatter propagation time delay errors and random errors.