White Rabbit Time and Frequency Transfer Over Wireless Millimeter-Wave Carriers

Abstract

We demonstrate time and frequency transfer using a White Rabbit (WR) time transfer system over millimeter-wave (mm-wave) 71-76 GHz carriers. To validate the performance of our system, we present overlapping Allan deviation (ADEV), time deviation (TDEV), and phase statistics. Over mm-wave carriers, we report an ADEV of 7.1×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-12</sup> at 1 s and a TDEV of <; 10 ps at 10 000 s. Our results show that after 4 s of averaging, we have sufficient precision to transfer a cesium atomic frequency standard. We analyze the link budget and architecture of our mm-wave link and discuss possible sources of phase error and their potential impact on the WR frequency transfer. Our data show that WR can synchronize new network architectures, such as physically separated fiber-optic networks, and support new applications, such as the synchronization of intermittently connected platforms. We conclude with recommendations for future investigation, including cascaded hybrid wireline and wireless architectures.