Why Cheap Standalone Clocks Cost You More: The Case for Synchronized & PoE Clocks

Accurate and synchronized timekeeping is crucial for maintaining operational efficiency in any organization. While inexpensive standalone clocks might seem appealing due to their low upfront cost, they often fall short in delivering the reliability and synchronization required in professional settings. Investing in synchronized clock systems, such as those offered by Sapling, Novanex and Bodet, ensures consistent and precise timekeeping across your entire facility.

The Limitations of Standalone Clocks

Standalone clocks, especially those priced around $30, come with several drawbacks:

  • Manual Adjustments: These clocks require individual setting and regular adjustments, especially during Daylight Saving Time changes or after power outages. This process is time-consuming and prone to inconsistencies.
  • Time Drift: Over time, standalone clocks can drift unpredictably, leading to discrepancies that can cause confusion and disrupt synchronized activities.
  • Maintenance Challenges: With each clock operating independently, ensuring uniformity in time display becomes a maintenance burden, increasing the likelihood of errors.

Advantages of Synchronized Clock Systems

Synchronized clock systems address these issues by providing a unified and accurate time display throughout your facility:

  • Uniform Time Display: All clocks receive time data from a central source, ensuring everyone follows the same accurate time, which is crucial for coordination and efficiency.
  • Automatic Adjustments: These systems automatically adjust for Daylight Saving Time and correct themselves after power outages, eliminating the need for manual intervention.
  • Reduced Maintenance: With centralized control, maintenance efforts are minimized, and the risk of time discrepancies is significantly reduced.

Power over Ethernet (PoE) Clocks: A Modern Solution

Novanex Synchronized Clock Systems

PoE (Power over Ethernet) clocks, such as those from Novanex, offer a streamlined solution for synchronized timekeeping while simplifying installation and maintenance. These clocks are particularly beneficial for businesses, schools, hospitals, and other large facilities where accurate timekeeping and ease of management are essential.

Single Cable Installation
PoE technology allows both power and data to be transmitted through a single Ethernet cable. This eliminates the need for separate electrical wiring or power outlets near each clock, reducing installation complexity, labor costs, and potential electrical hazards. Since the clocks receive both power and network connectivity from the same cable, they can be installed in a variety of locations without requiring major infrastructure changes.

Energy Efficiency & Low Maintenance
By drawing power directly from the network, PoE clocks remove the need for batteries or standalone power adapters, reducing energy consumption and minimizing the hassle of battery replacements. This not only contributes to cost savings over time but also ensures consistent and uninterrupted operation without the risk of power loss due to dead batteries.

Seamless Scalability & Network Integration
PoE clocks easily integrate into existing network infrastructures, making them highly scalable for deployments across small and large facilities alike. They can be centrally managed and synchronized with network time servers, ensuring all clocks display the same accurate time across different locations. This is especially useful in environments where precise timekeeping is critical, such as schools for bell schedules, healthcare facilities for patient care coordination, or corporate offices for meeting and shift scheduling.

Sapling Synchronized Clocks: A Trusted Choice

Sapling Synchronized Clock Systems

Sapling offers a range of synchronized clock systems designed to meet the diverse needs of schools, healthcare facilities, corporate offices, and other organizations that require precise, reliable timekeeping. By leveraging advanced technology, Sapling ensures that its clocks remain accurate, easy to install, and simple to maintain.

Wireless Simplicity with Wi-Fi Connectivity
Sapling’s Wi-Fi Clock System is designed for hassle-free installation and seamless operation. Unlike traditional wired clock systems, these clocks connect to an existing Wi-Fi network and receive accurate time data from either an internet-based or in-house NTP (Network Time Protocol) server. This eliminates the need for dedicated wiring between clocks, reducing installation complexity and costs. Whether deployed in new buildings or retrofitted into existing infrastructure, Sapling’s Wi-Fi clocks provide a flexible, scalable solution for synchronized timekeeping.

Advanced Technology for Accuracy & Reliability
Sapling integrates cutting-edge technology to ensure its clocks maintain precision and consistency. Features such as automatic time updates, self-adjusting daylight savings time settings, and real-time synchronization with NTP servers help eliminate time drift and manual adjustments. This level of automation is particularly beneficial in environments where accurate timekeeping is crucial, such as hospitals for coordinating medical procedures, schools for managing class schedules, and businesses for optimizing productivity.

Versatile Solutions for Diverse Needs

Beyond Wi-Fi clocks, Telnet Networks offers a variety of synchronized clock systems, including wired, wireless RF, and PoE options, allowing organizations to choose the best solution for their specific environment. With a commitment to innovation and reliability, Sapling provides high-quality timekeeping solutions that enhance operational efficiency, improve punctuality, and ensure seamless synchronization across facilities.

While inexpensive standalone clocks might offer short-term savings, they often lead to increased maintenance and time discrepancies. Investing in synchronized clock systems, such as those from Sapling and Novanex, ensures accurate, reliable, and maintenance-free timekeeping, ultimately enhancing operational efficiency and coordination across your facility and organization.

Safran SecureSync: A Vital Tool for Ensuring Public Safety in a Connected World

In today’s interconnected world, public safety depends on reliable and secure communication, coordination, and operational precision. From emergency response teams to critical infrastructure operators, organizations must rely on systems that are both secure and accurate. Safran’s SecureSync is a powerful solution designed to meet these needs, offering a blend of precise time synchronization, reliable security, and unparalleled reliability. Here’s why the SecureSync GPS/GNSS -based Network Time Server is a vital tool for enhancing public safety.

The Importance of Time Synchronization

Accurate timing is crucial in various scenarios to maintain synchronization, improve decision-making, and enhance overall effectiveness. SecureSync’s precise timing capabilities ensure that all connected systems and devices operate in harmony, minimizing errors and enhancing situational awareness across public safety operations.

1. Emergency Response Coordination
During large-scale emergencies, first responders—including police, fire, and medical teams—must work in seamless coordination. Precise time-stamping of communications and data logs ensures synchronization across all parties, enabling faster and more effective decision-making during critical situations.

2. Critical Infrastructure Protection
Utilities such as power grids, water supplies, and transportation systems depend on synchronized operations to remain functional and resilient. Timing discrepancies can result in outages, inefficiencies, or vulnerabilities that jeopardize public safety.

3. Event Reconstruction
Following an incident, accurate time-stamped data plays a vital role in forensic analysis, determining the sequence of events, and implementing preventative measures to avoid future occurrences.

SecureSync’s precise timing capabilities ensure that all connected systems and devices operate in harmony, minimizing errors and enhancing situational awareness across public safety operations.

Regulatory Compliance

Many public safety organizations must meet strict timing and security standards. SecureSync is designed to ensure compliance and reliability, helping agencies avoid penalties, maintain operational integrity, and build public trust while supporting long-term system performance.

NERC CIP Standards
For power utilities, SecureSync supports compliance with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection standards, safeguarding the reliability of essential services.

Canadian Data Security Requirements
For organizations handling sensitive information, including law enforcement agencies, systems must align with applicable federal and provincial regulations, such as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and provincial privacy laws. These requirements ensure the secure handling, storage, and access of sensitive information.

Alignment with Global Standards:

While Canadian-specific regulations apply, many organizations also align with global frameworks such as ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security Management Systems) to ensure comprehensive security practices.



Enhancing Resilience

Resilience is key to public safety, ensuring critical operations stay functional under challenging conditions. SecureSync enhances system resilience, helping public safety organizations maintain reliability and deliver essential services during adversity.

Redundant Architectures
With redundant power supplies and timing sources, SecureSync ensures continuous operation, even during component failures.

High Availability
The system’s reliable design minimizes downtime, enabling uninterrupted operation during emergencies or disruptions.

SecureSync addresses the critical need for secure, accurate, and synchronized systems, helping organizations tackle public safety challenges. From real-time coordination during emergencies to protecting vital infrastructure and ensuring compliance, it showcases how innovation drives resilience and reliability.

Telnet Networks proudly supports organizations in achieving their security and synchronization goals with solutions like SecureSync. Contact us today for a consultation or a tailored quote to meet your specific operational needs.

Why Legally Traceable Time is Crucial for Modern Business and Technology

Ixia`s Phantom vTap

In today’s connected world, precise and legally traceable time is crucial across industries like telecommunications, finance, aerospace, and cybersecurity. Legally traceable time ensures accurate, verifiable, and defensible time records, vital for compliance, security, and efficiency.

Companies like Safran and Hoptroff lead in high-precision time synchronization. Legally traceable time refers to data that is not only accurate but also sourced from trusted, verifiable systems, often synced to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). This creates an auditable time trail, ensuring that timestamps on critical data are legally valid.

Both Safran and Hoptroff use advanced techniques, such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), atomic clocks, and network time protocols (NTP), to provide time solutions that meet rigorous standards. These technologies guarantee that systems remain synchronized and that time records are verifiable and legally defensible if needed.

The Importance of Legally Traceable Time

1. Regulatory Compliance

Industries like finance, healthcare, and telecommunications require precise time stamping for regulatory compliance. For example, the financial sector depends on accurate timestamps for trade logs to meet regulations like MiFID II. Any time discrepancies can lead to legal disputes, fines, or fraud accusations, making legally traceable time essential for meeting these obligations.

2. Fraud Prevention

Tracing and verifying transaction times is crucial in combating fraud. Legally traceable time helps organizations establish an irrefutable timeline, whether for bank transactions or security breaches, aiding in detecting discrepancies and preventing malicious activities.

3. Security and Forensics

In cybersecurity, precise timing is crucial for investigating breaches and gathering forensic evidence. Accurate timestamps help forensic teams reconstruct attacks and identify perpetrators. Solutions like Hoptroff’s time synchronization make it easier to align network logs with legally traceable time.

As industries rely more on interconnected technologies, the need for legally traceable time is crucial. Solutions from leaders like Safran and Hoptroff ensure time data is accurate and legally defensible. A verifiable, synchronized time trail is essential for compliance, fraud prevention, security, and operational success in today’s fast-paced world. Time is a fundamental asset that demands precision and reliability.

4. Legal and Regulatory Compliance in Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical companies must adhere to POL-0140 part 6.2, which requires that electronic records and signatures include precise, legally traceable timestamps to ensure compliance. This regulation is essential for verifying that each step of the drug manufacturing process occurs in the correct sequence, maintaining the integrity and authenticity of electronic records. Furthermore, it provides an auditable trail that facilitates inspections and regulatory reviews, ensuring accountability and adherence to strict quality and safety standards.

5. Financial Transactions and Stock Trading
High-frequency trading (HFT) platforms execute thousands of trades per second, where microsecond differences can lead to substantial financial impacts. To ensure fairness and prevent market manipulation, regulators like the SEC in the U.S. and MiFID II in the EU mandate legally traceable timestamps for every transaction. These timestamps provide proof of the order and timing of transactions, supporting forensic analysis in cases of disputes or regulatory investigations, thereby promoting transparency and accountability in financial markets.

6. Industrial Control Systems (ICS) & Utilities
Electrical substations rely on time-sensitive protocols such as GOOSE (Generic Object-Oriented Substation Event) for protection and control, necessitating precise and legally traceable timestamps to log critical events like circuit breaker trips, power fluctuations, and outages. Accurate event sequencing is essential for root cause analysis, compliance with industry standards such as IEC 61850 and regulatory frameworks like NERC CIP, and for validating performance and reliability during audits, ensuring operational integrity and regulatory adherence.

7. Healthcare and Medical Records
Hospitals use electronic health record (EHR) systems to log patient data, medication administration, and medical device readings, where precise and traceable timestamps are vital. Accurate timing ensures records are in the correct sequence, preventing errors like missed doses or duplicate treatments, and supports patient safety. It also maintains record integrity, provides an auditable trail for procedures, ensures PIPEDA compliance, and aids in resolving legal and insurance claims by demonstrating proper care and accountability.

Precision time protocol built for Zero Trust Architecture

In this article:

  • There are some security concerns with NTP because it uses a stateless protocol for transport and is not authenticated. Also, there have been some incidents of denial of service attacks against NTP servers making them temporarily unavailable to supply time information.
  • The rise of the cashless trend underscores the necessity for a robust and resilient time synchronisation solution to address challenges posed by satellite connectivity failures and cybersecurity risks.
  • Having a complete, secure, resilient time service built on Zero Trust makes the necessary foundation for an entire network infrastructure allowing reliable authentication, systems monitoring, event detection and rapid response as well as post-facto forensics and analysis.

Digital transformation and payment processing platforms

Everyday the prospect of a cashless payments draws closer, with only four in ten US and one in six UK transactions now being made in cash. A rising number of businesses are going through digital transformation and refusing to accept cash, with many opting to become card-only in the past years­.

The cashless phenomenon is symptomatic of a wider cultural shift towards digital transformation. Over the last few centuries technology has increased the global reach and average speed of human life pace. Financial transactions have become increasingly fast and convenient, which in turn spurred economic growth. Our reliance on the convenience brought about by all things digital is growing every day, and at an exponential rate. However, digital transformation does not always lead to extra security.

The role of accurate time synchronisation

Going through digital transformation and becoming cashless is convenient – it eliminates the middleman, helps avoid corruption and is effective in fighting organised crime. Nevertheless, the convenience has a flip side – digital vulnerability. Indeed, a cashless society calls for a fundamental agreement on when digital transactions took place. A way to ensure that such agreement is in place is by having accurate time synchronisation, traceable timestamping, and Zero Trust Architecture. Timing is also a necessary component of global, regional and community banking– regulations such as the Second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID II) in the EU, and Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) in the US legally require time synchronisation and timestamping to be accurate and reliable.

This increasing popularity of living cashless coupled with the intensifying level of demand for cybersecurity and trusted timestamping has exposed the essential need for a systemic solution for when things go wrong, a failsafe backup system to correct any misalignments. If global, regional, or community banks were to lose their satellite connectivity, digital payment systems would begin to fail and a cashless society would begin to crumble. Indeed, few people realise how dependent we are on the satellites that play a role in our everyday lives.

While GNSS signals are widely available and free, they are subject to interference and are becoming more vulnerable to assault. Satellites in a 20-kilometre medium-earth orbit broadcast one-way signals in the 1.2-1.6 GHz waveband. This implies that they can be easily disturbed, either deliberately or inadvertently. The most common causes of GNSS disruption are unintentional interference, jamming and spoofing. Unintentional interference occurs when radio waves are generated by equipment ranging from microwave ovens to faulty antennas, drowning out weak GNSS signals. Intentional interference (‘jamming’) is becoming more prevalent, most notably when commercial drivers jam their on-board monitoring systems to obscure their tracks. Spoofing is a more advanced kind of interference in which fake GNSS signals are created to fool GNSS receivers into thinking they are in another location.

Additional to that, the reliability of the time source matters. During a criminal or forensic examination, the timestamps on your network may be compared to devices outside. Because of this, you want to make sure the source you are using is as accurate as possible. One of the most common protocols in use for time synchronisation is NTP. NTP servers are often temporarily unavailable to supply time information when they are under denial of service attacks.

Accurate time synchronisation for Zero Trust Architecture



The big question is this – How can digital payment systems function well in the digital economy?

This is where accurate time synchronisation and traceable timestamping come in. These timing solutions work by linking grandmaster clocks to multiple primary UTC sources in a timing hub, which means that connectivity providers can syndicate highly accurate time to servers in any data centre in the world over Internet Protocol via low-latency fibre cables. Time synchronisation software then adjusts the server clock to match the time feed, measures the internal latency and creates traceable and trusted timestamps logs, which are stored in the cloud.

Timing providers have developed systems built on a network of mutually robust cloud timing hubs, each of which is made up of three nanosecond-accurate grandmaster clocks linked to three distinct sources. The hubs compare the various timing sources on a regular basis to guarantee that accurate time synchronisation and traceable timestamps are always maintained. Thus, network delivered traceable timestamping solutions are bound to become even more relevant as we move towards Zero Trust and a completely cashless life.

Ready to learn more?

When thousands of transactions take place every second, this level of accuracy and reliability is required to give global, regional and community banks confidence that their transactions are being securely handled. A highly accurate timing solution built on Zero Trust Architecture is ready to be rolled out without the purchase and installation of additional timing infrastructure.

Hoptroff Traceable Time as a Service (TTaaS®) is a range of network and software-based timing solutions that are simple, resilient, and cost-effective.

Whether you need the security of verifiable time for compliance, or nanosecond delivery, our obsession with accuracy will transform your business.

Accurate and Precise Time Synchronization

Candela Lanforge Ice


Accurate Time Sync

Everyone involved in the finance sector rely on a resilient digital ecosystem, with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) coming into effect in the US shortly, has brought a renewed urgency to the conversation. Organizations must be able to respond and recover from all types of ICT related disruptions and threats.

One important lesson is accurate timing systems are vital, not optional, in cybersecurity. Of course, DORA’s scope extends beyond time, but its requirements clearly involve it. Because of incident reporting and risk management obligations, financial institutions will have to maintain high standards of time synchronisation, timing data and process documentation, and resilient timing that’s resistant to cyber-attacks.

In a distributed computing environment, it is impossible to determine what caused what unless all devices’ clocks agree and the billions of daily transactions are time stamped accurately. To achieve this your time source must be: 

  • Traceable to a credible source of UTC, the world’s consensus time that is recognized by governments such as NIST (US time standard), so that timestamps can be compared across public service organizations and other records.
  • Provable with logs of timekeeping accuracy retained for at least 5 years in order to prove that time was correct in the past.
  • Accurate so that intervals between timestamps can be confidently calculated, even up to within one millisecond (thousandth of a second). NENA (National emergency number association) guidelines suggests a 1-milisecond synchronization NENA
  • Secure: Reliable logging of the accuracy of all time sources, along with ancillary data that helps prove the time was correct. Provide alerts and warnings when time sources misbehave allowing for rapid response.
  • Interoperability: Industry standard protocols seamlessly integrate to customer systems safeguarding legacy investment
  • Evidencing: Provides traceability and verification, even years later

Precise and resilient time can be distributed from a global network satellite system (GNSS) using a master clock like the SecureSync2400 or a terrestrial source using a Traceable Time as a Service from Hoptroff.  

Hoptroff Time Sync for Power Substations

The Need For Substation Time Sync

Substations require time sync for many measurement applications. The most demanding is I-V sensing both sides of a transformer, requiring 4800 Hz samples to be timestamped ideally with 250ns local granularity (IEC Class A), but others are equally important, such as comparing synchrophasor measurements over transmission line distances, requiring traceability to UTC (IEC Classes B-F).

Substations within a 100-mile radius are managed by a single Remote Control Station. Local synchronization within the 100-mile radius should ideally be 250ns for Class A applications.

Control Stations within a power distribution network should be synchronized ideally to within 10μs of UTC for Classes B-F

Hoptroff Time Sync Solution

Hoptroff operates a global time synchronization network, operating resilient UTC timescales worldwide. It obtains time from multiple sources including terrestrial connections direct to national UTC labs to provide spoof-proof
service, and distributes it to customers over engineered IP networks to Critical Infrastructure facilities including Finance and Media.

As shown in the figure below, Hoptroff would provide boundary clocks at the Remote Control Station that connect to the network to obtain time and distribute it to the substations. A monitoring server reports back to Hoptroff that that Merging Units are correctly requesting time. All devices and connectivity are dual and diverse to ensure service resilience.


Resilient Time Sync for Substations diagram

Resilient Time Sync for Substations — 250ns locally and 10μs to UTC

Time Sync Accuracy Requirements

The IEC 61850-5:2013 Standard quantifies time sync accuracy requirements as detailed in the table below.

Class Accuracy Application
A 1μs Local Phasor and I-V measurements
B 100μs UTC Automated fault recording
C 1ms UTC Time tagging transient events
D 10ms UTC Power quality measurements
E 100ms UTC Slow event monitoring and logging
F 1s UTC Non time-critical monitoring

Hoptroff Time Sync Benefits

Cost – Typically we provide cost savings of 50% compared to in-house timing installations.

Opex –  not Capex, with an annual fee for time service, monitoring and support replacing an up-front cost.

GPS Resilience –  The Hoptroff Time Sync service, with terrestrial connections to National Measurement Institutes including NIST in the United States, is unaffected by GPS denial and spoofing in the field, conforming to US Executive Order 13905.

Support – Hoptroff monitors the time service to Merging Units and provides timely advice if any devices are not requesting time correctly.

Hassle Free –  time management with less hardware deployed in the field being subjected to the elements.

Synchronizing Time in a System of Systems (SoS) in the Process Control Industry

In the process control industry, precise time synchronization is essential for ensuring coordinated operations, reliable data acquisition, and efficient control of interconnected systems. The Safran SecureSync time server is a critical solution that addresses the challenges of synchronizing system of systems (SoS) within this industry. By providing robust time synchronization capabilities, the SecureSync enables seamless coordination, enhances operational efficiency, and ensures the integrity of critical processes. Let’s explore the significance of the SecureSync in synchronizing SoS within the process control industry, its technical advantages, and its impact on operational excellence.

The Complexity of System of Systems in Process Control

The process control industry comprises a multitude of interconnected systems that rely on accurate synchronization to achieve optimal performance. These “system of systems” include various components such as sensors, actuators, controllers, and supervisory systems that work together to automate and monitor industrial processes. In this complex environment, precise synchronization is crucial to ensure seamless coordination, reliable data acquisition, and accurate control.

Reliable Time Synchronization for Coordination

Accurate time synchronization is fundamental to the coordination of system of systems in the process control industry. Precise and consistent time references facilitate efficient communication, data exchange, and coordinated decision-making across different subsystems. SecureSync offers highly accurate time synchronization, ensuring that all components within the system of systems operate on the same time scale, eliminating discrepancies, and enhancing overall performance.

Seamless Data Acquisition and Control

Accurate and synchronized timekeeping provided by SecureSync significantly enhances data acquisition and control processes. By ensuring consistent time stamps across various data sources, SecureSync enables efficient data integration and analysis. This synchronized data acquisition allows process control engineers to gain real-time insights, detect anomalies, and implement timely corrective actions, leading to improved operational efficiency and enhanced system performance.

Critical Infrastructure Protection and Security

In the process control industry, protecting critical infrastructure and ensuring data security are paramount concerns. Accurate time synchronization plays a crucial role in securing system of systems against cyber threats, data breaches, and unauthorized access. The SecureSync 2400 incorporates advanced security features and secure protocols, providing robust protection and ensuring the integrity of time synchronization in critical process control environments.

Compliance with Industry Standards

The process control industry operates under stringent regulatory frameworks and industry standards. Compliance with these standards requires accurate and traceable time synchronization. The SecureSync assists organizations in meeting these compliance obligations, providing compliant time synchronization for auditing, reporting, and adherence to industry regulations.

Scalability and Flexibility for System of Systems

The SecureSync is designed to support the scalability and flexibility requirements of system of systems within the process control industry. Its modular architecture enables seamless integration into existing infrastructure, accommodating a wide range of system configurations and diverse protocols. Whether in small-scale installations or large industrial plants, the SecureSync offers the flexibility to synchronize system of systems effectively, regardless of the complexity or scale of the operation.

Conclusion

Accurate time synchronization is crucial for achieving operational excellence in the process control industry, ensuring coordinated operations, reliable data acquisition, and the integrity of critical processes. The Safran SecureSync plays a pivotal role in synchronizing system of systems, providing highly accurate time synchronization capabilities. By leveraging the SecureSync, organizations in the process control industry can enhance operational efficiency, ensure data integrity, and meet regulatory compliance requirements. The SecureSync time server is a cornerstone in the pursuit of excellence within the process control industry, enabling seamless coordination, enhancing security, and optimizing performance across interconnected systems.

Traceable Time Keeps Getting Easier

Accurate, traceable time is needed for many different applications. Whether it’s meeting banking regulations, providing verifiable timestamps on medical records, providing a common sync reference for security and access control systems, or even ensuring the performance of basic distributed network operations, accurate, traceable time is needed. However, getting access to a traceable time source hasn’t always been easy.

Traditionally, the most common way to get accurate, traceable time is to deploy a GNSS based time server with an antenna receiving time from one or more of the GNSS constellations. For sure, this is the gold standard for most time and sync applications. With time from GNSS, accuracy to UTC is measured in nanoseconds. And because time is coming from an official time source via the different GNSS constellations, that time is also traceable. This means the accuracy of the time source being used by a network can be verified to be true within some threshold of error.

Time from GNSS based time servers may be the most commonly available way to get accurate, traceable time, but deploying them isn’t always simple. In order to receive the GNSS signals, an antenna must be installed, and that can sometimes pose significant challenges. In some cases, such as in leased spaces, it’s not possible to get permission to install an antenna on the roof or access isn’t possible. In other cases, the costs for installation combined with a reoccurring cost to keep an antenna on the roof makes installing an antenna cost prohibitive.

To complicate matters, while the nanosecond level accuracy achieved from GNSS is nice to have, it’s overkill for many applications. So the entire concept of needing to install a GNSS Antenna and incur the associated cost and hassle just for traceable time can be frustrating. Eliminating that frustration was the purpose behind Traceable Time as a Service (TTaaS).

Traceable Time as a Service delivers accurate, traceable time over a secure VPN connection to provide a traceable time reference for your network. Because TTaaS is delivered over a VPN, setup is easy and familiar, especially compared to installing antennas, coax cable, surge arrestors, amplifiers, and more.

In addition to being easy to install, TTaaS is also accurate. Using just a VPN connection, accuracies can range between microseconds to milliseconds offset to UTC / NIST / etc. Accuracy aside, the important thing is that you know what your offset is, can verify it, and can therefore ensure traceability. That’s what TTaaS does.

Traceable Time as a Service by Hoptroff, has a network of timing hubs at datacenters around the globe, getting time from GNSS, this network connects directly to national labs such as RISE in Sweden and NIST in the US. Using proprietary techniques, Hoptroff’s software is able to accurately determine time offset by comparing time at your location to the time at other locations within that network. That capability combined with the direct connection to national labs and GNSS allow for clear, easy traceability between the time delivered to you over TTaaS and the timing hubs it’s coming from.

The concept of Time as a Service may be new to some people, but it’s been around for quite some time. Until somewhat recently, services were mostly setup to accommodate certain industries, such as Financial trading, and were only available within certain datacenters or co-location facilities. But with new advances in networking technology and protocols, it’s becoming possible to make those kinds of timing services more widely available and to more markets that need traceable time. And because services like TTaaS are over a VPN and are so easy to setup and maintain, the shift towards these kinds of services will continue to grow.

10 Reasons Why Time is Critical for Trading Systems

Time synchronization is crucial in financial trading systems for several reasons. Here are the top 10:

1. Order Execution

Time synchronization ensures that order execution occurs accurately and consistently across different trading platforms. It allows traders to enter and execute orders at the intended time, avoiding discrepancies or delays that could impact trade outcomes.

2. Market Data Analysis

Financial trading relies heavily on real-time market data analysis. Time synchronization ensures that traders and algorithms receive market data feeds simultaneously, enabling them to make informed decisions based on the most up-to-date information.

3. Trade Settlement

Accurate time synchronization is essential for trade settlement processes, such as trade matching, confirmation, and clearing. It helps ensure that transactions occur in the correct sequence, reducing the risk of errors, disputes, or failed settlements.

4. Regulatory Compliance

Financial markets operate under strict regulations that often require precise timekeeping. Time synchronization enables compliance with reporting requirements, audit trails, and regulatory mandates, such as recording trade timestamps or meeting transaction reporting deadlines.

5. Event Sequence Reconstruction

In the event of a trade dispute or investigation, time synchronization allows for the accurate reconstruction of events. Traders can rely on synchronized timestamps to establish the sequence of trades, identify potential issues, and resolve disputes more effectively.

6. Algorithmic Trading

Many trading strategies rely on complex algorithms that execute trades based on specific market conditions. Time synchronization ensures that these algorithms operate with consistent timing, preventing discrepancies between different components of the system and optimizing trade execution.

7. Market Data Aggregation

Financial institutions often aggregate market data from various sources for analysis and decision-making. Accurate time synchronization allows for precise data alignment, ensuring that information from different exchanges or data providers is combined correctly and avoiding data inconsistencies.

8. High-Frequency Trading (HFT)

In high-frequency trading, where trades are executed in microseconds or even nanoseconds, time synchronization becomes critical. HFT firms depend on synchronized clocks to measure and react to small market inefficiencies and execute trades at lightning-fast speeds.

9. Risk Management

Effective risk management in financial trading requires accurate time synchronization. It allows risk models to factor in the timing of trades, market events, and other variables, enabling institutions to assess and mitigate risks more accurately.

10. CROSS-Platform Compatibility

Traders often operate across multiple trading platforms, such as exchanges, dark pools, or alternative trading systems. Time synchronization ensures compatibility between these platforms, facilitating the seamless transfer of orders and information across different systems.

Overall, time synchronization is essential in financial trading systems to ensure accurate order execution, reliable data analysis, regulatory compliance, risk management, and seamless integration across various platforms. It plays a vital role in maintaining fairness, transparency, and efficiency in the global financial markets.

Unparalleled Efficiency At Scale With SecureSync In Data Operations

Introduction

In the era of big data and distributed systems, achieving efficiency at scale is crucial for data operators. The Safran SecureSync emerges as a game-changing solution, providing unparalleled efficiency and reliability in time synchronization for data operations. We will explore the technical details behind the SecureSync and demonstrate how data operators can gain significant efficiencies at scale by leveraging its advanced features.

Exceptional Precision and Reliability

The SecureSync boasts exceptional precision and reliability, ensuring accurate time synchronization across distributed systems. Its innovative architecture combines precision timing components and advanced technologies, delivering ultra-low phase noise and frequency accuracy. With a holdover stability of <1 µs/day, the SecureSync guarantees uninterrupted synchronization, even in the event of temporary loss of reference signals.

High Scalability and Flexibility

Data operators often deal with expanding infrastructures and evolving requirements. The SecureSync is designed to address these scalability challenges. It supports a high number of simultaneous network clients, accommodating large-scale distributed systems effortlessly. Whether deployed in a small cluster or a global network, the SecureSync seamlessly integrates with existing infrastructure, providing precise time synchronization across all nodes.

Robust Timing Redundancy

The SecureSync ensures reliability in demanding operational environments through its timing redundancy capabilities. It incorporates dual-redundant power supplies and accepts multiple timing sources, minimizing the risk of single points of failure. Redundant timing sources and power supplies guarantee continuous synchronization and prevent disruptions that could impact data operations.

Advanced Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Support

SecureSync supports both NTP and PTP, enabling compatibility with a wide range of distributed systems. NTP provides accurate time synchronization for applications that require millisecond-level accuracy, while PTP offers sub-microsecond synchronization for applications with stringent timing requirements. The SecureSync’s ability to support both protocols ensures flexibility in integrating with various data operations, optimizing performance and efficiency.

Compliance and Traceability

Data operators often face stringent compliance requirements and the need for traceability in their operations. The SecureSync addresses these concerns by adhering to industry standards for time synchronization. It provides traceable and auditable event timestamps, facilitating compliance with regulatory frameworks and simplifying the audit process for data operations.

Comprehensive Management and Monitoring Capabilities

To efficiently manage and monitor distributed systems, the SecureSync offers advanced management and monitoring features. Its intuitive web-based interface allows for centralized control, configuration, and monitoring of multiple SecureSync units. The interface provides real-time status updates, performance metrics, and alerts, ensuring proactive management and facilitating rapid troubleshooting.

Conclusion

The SecureSync from Safran empowers data operators to achieve unparalleled efficiency at scale in their distributed systems. With exceptional precision, scalability, redundancy, protocol support, compliance adherence, and comprehensive management capabilities, the SecureSync proves to be a reliable and efficient solution for accurate time synchronization.

By leveraging the technical capabilities of the SecureSync, data operators can ensure seamless data operations, mitigate risks of inconsistencies, and optimize performance at scale. With its advanced features and robust design, the SecureSync emerges as a key enabler for data operators seeking efficiency, reliability, and compliance in their distributed data environments.