Master Timing of CAS Ground Stations

The characteristics of a master time and master-time dissemination subsystem for a collision avoidance system acceptable to the Air Transport Association of America are investigated. Selection of a time scale, a ground-station timing standard, and a synchronization technique are discussed. The conclusions are that a uniform time scale is ideal for the application, that a minimum of four cesium-beam standards are needed at each ground station, and that portable-clock synchronization is the only synchronization technique feasible at the present time. Considerations that suggest use of a nonuniform time scale are noted, and means of minimizing the adverse effects of the offsets necessitated by such an approach are described. Both single-master and weighted-average implementations of the time scale are discussed.