TARDEC’S Highly Robust and Accurate Vehicle Time [Synchronization] Platform

Today’s warfighter relies on Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies for precise positioning and time synchronization. Reliance upon this technology can significantly handicap vehicles in a GPS-denied environment. Given the challenges of urban terrain, heavily-wooded areas, and electronic counter-measures from the United States’ adversaries, there is a strong need to create redundant systems that can operate in lieu of an absent GPS signal. TARDEC VEA created an embedded platform called the “VICTORY PNT Hub”, to help address this GPS-related problem as well as the lack of Assured Position, Navigation, and Time (A-PNT) products and solutions. One of the strengths of the VICTORY PNT Hub lies in the “Time” portion of PNT. This paper describes the architecture of the system that is designed to provide highly-accurate and robust vehicle-wide time synchronization with or without a GPS signal. Additionally, a goal of this research will provide quantitative measurements of time accuracy and how this may help existing subsystems integrate with existing time-based protocols.