Real Time Optical Network for Accelerator Control

Next generation accelerators require highly accurate timing distribution over the distance of tens of kilometers. The timing accuracy of up to tens of femtoseconds over the distance of 50 kilometers may be needed. Traditional timing distribution methods using coaxial cables is impractical in this environment. In addition, various subsystems and devices in the accelerator complex need to have common clock traceable to a primary clock source such as UTC to allow accurate control of the time-sequenced pulses and data analysis. MagiQ addresses this problem by incorporating two recent advances in timing distribution over optical fiber: (1) the RF clock distribution over stabilized fiber that can achieve femtosecond level timing accuracy and (2) White Rabbit architecture that provides sub-nanosecond level time synchronization using low-cost fiber-based Ethernet infrastructure. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: High precision timing distribution has many applications in test and measurement, data acquisition, and manufacturing sectors of industry as well as in long-baseline astronomy and in Earth & apos;s geoid mapping.