Optimal On-Board Clock Control

This paper presents an optimal control procedure for an on-board oscillator which provides basic switching and processing timing on the satellite. Alternate methods of measuring oscillator drift are described, and a linear discrete optimization model is developed. The optimum system minimizes a long-term phase error for any possible oscillator drift satisfying a certain constraint. The proposed on-board clock control scheme requires only a voltage-controlled oscillator on board and has a number of advantages over other methods.