Author: Zdenek Chaloupka, PhD; u-blox AG; zdenek.chaloupka@u-blox.com

Mobile telecom networks are gradually moving to their next phase in which densification of mobile base stations is expected to play a pivotal role in enabling coverage in urban areas. The reason for that is mainly the expected shift from overcrowded spectrum frequencies below 6 GHz to frequencies above 24 GHz. This shift, however, comes at a price of much higher free space propagation losses, which can be addressed by lowering inter-site distance, hence densify the mobile networks.

Now synchronization and monitoring of a dense network is undoubtedly both, very important and difficult to achieve at a reasonable cost. This talk will focus on how to address synchronization and monitoring of a dense network in a scalable way using GNSS signals.

The talk will be split into two main parts: network monitoring using Common View Time Transfer (CVTT) and network synchronization using Differential Time Transfer (DTT).

In the first part we will show how to build a scalable monitoring system (devices, tools and requirements) using principles of CVTT, and the second part will focus on the achievable synchronization performance for relative time transfer based on DTT. The talk will also explain what is the main difference between CVTT and DTT methods, and what are the biggest challenges for deployment of these technologies.