Pulsar Based Timing for Grid Synchronization

Abstract

Existing timing systems in power grid, such as GPS, are susceptible to temporary or permanent failures due to various unpredictable and uncontrollable factors such as cyber-attack, electromagnetic interferences and solar activities, thus affecting the accuracy and reliability of generating timing signal. In this paper, a pulsar astronomy-based timing system is proposed to provide an alternative synchronization signal. This stable clock will offer significant security improvements to power grid applications, such as wide-area monitoring system, which depends on precise timing signal. The hardware and software framework are described in detail. First, a high-speed sampling hardware platform is designed to collect signals from radio telescopes. Then a Periodic Pulse Extraction Method (PPEM) including polyphase filterbanks, incoherent de-dispersion and sliding window folding is utilized to process the pulsar signal. Lastly, two experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the hardware and software frameworks. The generated pulsar timing pulse is presented, and the factors affecting the timing accuracy are also discussed.