Test & Measurement


Aligning clocks over large distances

27 November 2025 Test & Measurement

Network clocks are the backbone of critical infrastructure operations, with the precise alignment of clocks becoming increasingly important for data centres, power utilities, wireless and wireline networks, and financial institutions. For critical infrastructure operators to deploy timing architectures with reliability and resiliency, their clocks and timing references must be measured and verified to an authoritative time source such as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Microchip Technology recently announced its new SkyWire technology, a time measurement tool embedded in the BlueSky Firewall 2200, that is designed to measure, align, and verify time to within nanoseconds even when clocks are long distances apart.

With the BlueSky GNSS Firewall 2200 and SkyWire technology, geographically dispersed timing systems can be compared to each other and compared to the time scale systems deployed at metrology labs within nanoseconds. Measurement of clock alignment and traceability to this level has typically only been done between metrology labs and scientific institutes. With Microchip’s solution, critical timing networks for air traffic control, transportation, public utilities and financial services can achieve alignment within nanoseconds between its clocks to protect their infrastructure no matter where the clocks are located.

The concept originated as an extension to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) pre-existing service called Time Measurement and Analysis Service (TMAS), which is utilised by entities that are required to maintain an accurate local time standard. The BlueSky GNSS Firewall 2200 with SkyWire technology provides a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) product to enable critical infrastructure operators to connect with the NIST TMAS Data Service for large-volume clock deployments.


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