The 2nd SIG Time & Frequency meeting took place on 12-13 March in Ispra, Italy, kindly hosted by the European Commission Joint Research Center. The meeting had 52 on-site participants and close to 30 joining online – a great turnout given that SIG-TFN was only established in February 2024. Participants included NRENs, National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) and other bodies from Member States, telecom industry representatives, EURAMET, GÉANT and the European Commission.
The meeting successfully fulfilled SIG-TFN’s initial objective of establishing a forum for the community engaged in Time and Frequency distribution across Research and Education Networks. The goal of this event was to discuss the pan-European timing network and explore collaboration opportunities between stakeholders, including member states/NRENs for the possible commercial use while maintaining existing obligations and use cases.
The first day started off with a warm welcome from Georgios Giannopoulos (Deputy Director of Directorate E of the JRC). The programme was then kicked off with presentations from telecom industry representatives Marek Brawanski (Orange) and Ettore Genta (Vodafone). They provided an overview of industry requirements for timing across Europe and presented their vision regarding Time from a commercial perspective.
During group roundtable discussions, participants engaged in collective brainstorming. They delved into questions such as “What are the commercial time distribution technical requirements and what do you perceive as the main choke points?”, “What does telecom need to distribute time and what are the user requirements?” and “What support do you expect from the EC?”.
After the productive and intense group discussions, Davide Calonico (INRiM) presented on the Italian Quantum Backbone – a research infrastructure over optical fibres for quantum communication, metrology and sensing. He gave an overview of INRIM (Italy’s National Metrology Institute), the deployment of the Italian Quantum Backbone and its infrastructure, as well as use cases of European optical clocks.
Christian Chardonnet (REFIMEVE) then discussed REFIMEVE’s 2026 Roadmap and some fascinating use cases, including earthquake detection. REFIMEVE (Réseau Fibré Métrologique à Vocation Européenne) is a national research infrastructure in France that enables the transmission of ultra-stable frequency and time signals over optical fiber networks without degradation.
The day continued with the second part of the roundtable discussions. Participants explored questions such as “What are the existing NMIs/NRENs time distribution commercial technical requirements and what do you perceive as the main challenges and choke points?”, “What do NMIs/NRENs need to provide time to the telecom industry?” and “What support do you expect from Member States?”.
The roundtable discussions were effective in identifying the different technical requirements for NMIs and commercial time distributors (e.g. telecom service providers). The role of standardisation was undisputed. Participants identified the need for further developments in standardisation, involving all the stakeholders, as well as for fora (such as SIG-TFN and EURAMET) for discussing and sharing good practices. There was a consensus for a resilient time-distribution, robust to GNSS jamming and spoofing. NMIs have the expertise to deliver the time signal via fiber-based networks and can also feed it to telecom infrastructure with the higher required accuracy. Interconnecting NMIs via fiber links would increase the robustness of the infrastructure as well as the accuracy of the time signal. A notable example is FOREST project. The availability of the distributed time and regulations are important aspects to be considered. The details of such cooperation as well as role of each stakeholder require further discussion.
The first day of the meeting concluded with a discussion from the European Commission and GÉANT on economic sustainability, financing and funding. Lukasz Bonenberg (JRC) highlighted important points, such as the importance of Member States to communicate their needs to the European Commissions, the value of their support and critical next steps.
The participants then took part in a thought-provoking lab tour of the European Microfrequency Signature Lab. The group was able to see first-hand the JRC Anechoic Chamber – a specialised facility used for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing, radio frequency (RF) measurements, and antenna characterisation.
The second day opened with an important project update from Guy Roberts (GÉANT). He presented various aspects of C-TFN (Core Time/Frequency Network), such as procurement, timescales, channel design, etc. The GÉANT Core Time/Frequency Network represents a significant step towards creating a unified, high-precision time and frequency distribution system across Europe, supporting a wide range of scientific and technological endeavours that require exact synchronisation. Consequently, SIG-TFN plays a pivotal role in this and is instrumental in advancing the C-TFN project and ensuring its alignment with the needs of the research and education communities.
The meeting continued with a presentation from Joseph Achkar and Mikko Merimaa (EURAMET). They discussed the need for precise time infrastructure. They also highlighted EURAMET supports further European integration and welcomes collaboration with GÉANT and the European Commission/JRC on research and technology infrastructures, including time and frequency links.
During the break Filippo Landini (GARR) demonstrated TimeMap – a tool developed by GARR to visualise and monitor time and frequency distribution over research networks. Afterwards, Amanda Diez Fernandez (CERN) showcased the White Rabbit collaboration. White Rabbit is an open-source timing technology developed at CERN, with applications far beyond particle physics, its technology now becoming an industry standard. The White Rabbit collaboration is a membership-based global community whose objective is to maintain a high-performance open-source technology that meets the needs of users and to facilitate its uptake by industry. Learn more about it here: https://home.cern/news/news/knowledge-sharing/cern-launches-white-rabbit-collaboration.
The 2nd SIG-TFN meeting concluded with a data sharing strategy presentation from Domenico Vicinanza (GÉANT), the initiator of SIG-TFN and a side note of the newly formed SIG-Quantum, a special interest group which may be relevant to the SIG-TFN community.
Learn more about SIG-Quantum here: https://wiki.geant.org/display/SIGQ/SIG-Quantum+Homepage. You can also subscribe to its mailing list here to be up to date with any news or future meetings: https://lists.geant.org/sympa/subscribe/sig-quantum/.
A big thank you to everyone who joined both in-person and online, and a special thank to the Joint Research Centre in Ispra who made this possible.
Subscribe to the SIG-TFN mailing list here to make sure you don’t miss out on future events and developments: https://lists.geant.org/sympa/subscribe/sig-tfn.
About SIG-TFN
SIG-TFN (Time and Frequency Network) aims to gather and exchange experiences, ideas and knowledge on the development, deployment, testing and standardisation of Time and Frequency solutions, leading to the development of a Core-Time and Frequency Network (C-TFN). The SIG has an advisory role to GEANT GPPC and relevant project management/coordination function.
