Multi-Source Common-View Disciplined Clock: A Fail-Safe Clock for Critical Infrastructure Systems.

The multi-source common-view disciplined clock (MSCVDC) is a recent NIST invention designed to support critical infrastructure timing systems that require a verifiably accurate and fail-safe clock. This paper introduces the MSCVDC, provides a technical description of how it works, and discusses its reliability, redundancy, security, and performance. It also discusses the possibility of a commercially available MSCVDC product.

A Historical Review of U.S. Contributions to the Atomic Redefinition of the SI Second in 1967.

This paper was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the atomic redefinition of the second in the International System (SI) in 1967. It focuses on the work of individuals and organizations in the United States who made significant contributions to the redefinition of the SI second and helped to establish the era of atomic timekeeping.

Accurate, Traceable, and Verifiable Time Synchronization for World Financial Markets.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), through a collaboration with Perseus, a global provider of telecommunication services, is providing accurate, traceable, and verifiable time synchronization to stock exchanges in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The paper describes why accurate time is necessary for fair and equitable financial markets and summarizes current and proposed future synchronization requirements in the financial sector. We discuss reference time sources and provide a technical overview of how NIST transfers time to data center hosted stock exchange. We also discuss how Perseus distributes NIST time to financial market customers and describes how the time is verified. Measurement data are presented, along with a discussion of measurement uncertainty.

WWVB: A Half Century of Delivering Accurate Frequency and Time by Radio.

In commemoration of its 50th anniversary of broadcasting from Fort Collins, Colorado, this paper provides a history of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) radio station WWVB. The narrative describes the evolution of the station, from its origins as a source of standard frequency, to its current role as the source of time-of-day synchronization for many millions of radio controlled clocks.

A Low-Cost Time Transfer Receiver for Contributions to Coordinated Universal Time.

This paper describes a low-cost time transfer receiver that allows timing laboratories, including national metrology institutes and other designated institutions, to contribute data to the computation of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time transfer receiver compares a laboratory's local realization of UTC, to signals broadcast by Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. It stores the measurement results in a format compatible with international standards, and sends data via the Internet to the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) for inclusion in the UTC computation. In addition to being inexpensive, the receiver was designed to be easy to use, allowing recently established timing laboratories to begin contributing to UTC with a minimal investment in training.

The SIM Time Network.

The Sistema Interamericano de Metrologia (SIM) is a regional metrology organization (RMO) whose members are the national metrology institutes (NMIs) located in the 34 nations of the Organization of American States (OAS). The SIM/OAS region extends throughout North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean Islands. About half of the SIM NMIs maintain national standards of time and frequency and must participate in international comparisons in order to establish metrological traceability to the International System (SI) of units. The SIM time network (SIMTN) was developed as a practical, cost effective, and technically sound way to automate these comparisons. The SIMTN continuously compares the time standards of SIM NMIs and produces measurement results in near real-time by utilizing the Internet and the Global Positioning System (GPS). Fifteen SIM NMIs have joined the network as of December 2010. This paper provides a brief overview of SIM and a technical description of the SIMTN. It presents international comparison results and examines the measurement uncertainties. It also discusses the metrological benefits that the network provides to its participants.

A common-view disciplined oscillator.

This paper describes a common-view disciplined oscillator (CVDO) that locks to a reference time scale through the use of common-view global positioning system (GPS) satellite measurements. The CVDO employs a proportional-integral-derivative controller that obtains near real-time common-view GPS measurements from the internet and provides steering corrections to a local oscillator. A CVDO can be locked to any time scale that makes real-time common-view data available and can serve as a high-accuracy, self-calibrating frequency and time standard. Measurement results are presented where a CVDO is locked to UTC(NIST), the coordinated universal time scale maintained at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado.

The GOES Time Code Service, 1974-2004: A Retrospective.

NIST ended its Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) time code service at 0 hours, 0 minutes Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on January 1, 2005. To commemorate the end of this historically significant service, this article provides a retrospective look at the GOES service and the important role it played in the history of satellite timekeeping.