Critical infrastructure such as public utilities, transportation, and mobile networks depend on time to synchronise their networks.
The primary source of time comes from national timing systems such as GPS, but these signals are susceptible to jamming and spoofing attacks. To continue to provide critical infrastructure operators with a secure timing solution, Microchip Technology has announced the release of version 2.4 of the TimeProvider 4100 grandmaster firmware, with an embedded BlueSky firewall function to detect potential threats and validate GNSS, before using the signal as a time reference.
“Security is of utmost importance to operators; it is critical to make sure that the time reference used by a grandmaster is a valid signal and can be trusted,” said Randy Brudzinski, vice president of Microchip’s frequency and time systems business unit. “The TimeProvider 4100 grandmaster, with its embedded BlueSky GPS firewall, offers our customers a cost-effective solution that provides highly effective protection against spoofing, jamming and other threats that could compromise the validity of the GNSS signal.”
The TimeProvider 4100 series v2.4 also implements IEEE 1588 power profiles, which enables gateway capabilities between PTP telecom and power profiles. With this device, utility companies can connect the communication and substation networks to support the convergence of Information Technology and Operational Technology networks as operators continue to modernise.
The growth of emerging private networks continues to increase in a variety of locations like factories, stadiums and mines. These private networks can now be synchronised with the TimeProvider 4100 series v2.4, equipped with the Time Sensitive Network profile 802.1.AS. This functionality provides private networks with a more accurate and autonomous time system to coordinate private network IoT devices.
Resiliency is necessary for synchronisation solutions serving critical infrastructures. A failure can lead to degradation or a complete loss of service. Software redundancy contributes to the resiliency of the TimeProvider 4100 series because it enables two grandmasters to be synchronised in an Active/Standby model, so network clients can be served by the Standby unit if the Active unit encounters a disruption. Another important and valuable feature of the TimeProvider 4100 series v2.4 is the additional model for redundancy, allowing two units to operate in Active/Active mode. Customers employing the Active/Active mode can benefit from the two grandmasters designed to operate at all times, compared to the Active/Standby configuration where one device is not used while remaining in the standby mode.
The TimeProvider 4100 series v2.4 is integrated with the TimePictra Synchronization Management System to provide users a complete view of their synchronisation operation and health across their network.
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