Time transfer through optical fibers (TTTOF): Progress on calibrated clock comparisons

Abstract

During the last years the transfer of frequency signals through optical fibers has shown ultra low instabilities in various configurations. The outstanding experimental results of such point-to-point connections is motivation to develop a means to extend the frequency transfer to accurate time transfer. We aim at the synchronization of clocks located at different places of the PTB campus with an over-all uncertainty of less than 100 ps. Such an installation can be used as a part of the infrastructure connecting local time scales with the ground station setup during forthcoming ACES experiments and the local two-way satellite time and frequency transfer (TWSTFT) installations. This paper reports on the progress on time transfer through optical fibers (TTTOF) similar to the well known and long established TWSTFT scheme: A 10 MHz signal is transferred through an optical fiber connection to a remote site for realization of a time scale using a 10 MHz to 1PPS divider. For time transfer the 1PPS output is initially synchronized and then monitored by TWSTFT equipment connected by a second optical fiber to observe instabilities and uncertainties. Depending on further needs in future the transferred signal can be monitored only (for software correction) or con-trolled in real time by adding adequate phase shifters. We discuss procedures for a proper calibration of such TTTOF links and show results of experiments using fiber lengths up to two kilometers which prove that the proposed method is well suitable for the envisaged purpose.