Formation of a Real-Time Time Scale With Asia-Pacific TWSTFT Network Data

Abstract

This paper presents a novel scheme to generate a real-time paper time scale by utilizing ensemble clock data and two-way satellite time and frequency transfer (TWSTFT) data of time laboratories in the Asia-Pacific region. Based on integration of the aforementioned data with a specific weighting method and a fuzzy prediction approach, the reference paper time scale devised in this paper can be generated in real time. The validity of the proposed scheme is investigated by undertaking about one year's worth of experiments, which are based on the calculated clock ensembles from TWSTFT links among Asian time laboratories. Moreover, the performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated with respect to the time scales of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and local realizations of UTC. The simulated real-time reference time scale based on the proposed scheme is within 10 ns with UTC, and time deviation is less than 0.6 ns for a time interval exceeding 60 days.