Timing security, also considered “timing assuredness,” is essential for timing as a fundamental enabler across a wide range of industries. Yet timing security faces challenges. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), the primary source for UTC across the world, has significant vulnerabilities. Time is also distributed using dedicated timing networks, other free-space radio signals, optical networks and packet-based networks. Each technique depends on a different infrastructure and each has its own unique vulnerabilities.
This Virtual WSTS session addresses these problems and the solutions-oriented work that is addressing them. It features a keynote from Karen Van Dyke, the Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) director of the Department of Transportation on efforts to provide backup systems to GPS in the U.S. The session explores a new White House Executive Order supporting the importance and vulnerability of PNT. Also addressed is the Department of Homeland Security’s work to develop standards for an open architecture integrity framework in GPS, as well as timing services based on GNSS.
